Yannick Bolloré: Last News

A hike in subscribers for French pay-TV giant Canal+ Group as well as a successful year at the box office in France for Studiocanal helped drive positive 2023 results for parent company Vivendi, which were released Thursday evening after the close of the local stock exchange.

The European Commission has given the greenlight for French conglom Vivendi’s acquisition of the Lagardère Group.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Vivendi, the parent company of Canal+ Group, has received the green light from the European Commission to proceed with the acquisition of Lagardère, the French media, publishing and travel retail conglomerate. This European Commission has given its approval under Vivendi’s two proposed commitments, starting with the sale of 100% of the share capital of its publishing group Editis, as well as the full sale of Gala magazine. Vivendi said it expects to close both deals by the end of October. It entered into exclusive negotiations to sell Editis to a subsidiary of Czech Media Invest (CMI) founded by Daniel Kretinsky, in March. With the acquisition of Lagardère group, Vivendi’s payroll will rise to 66,000 employees compared to 38,000 at the end of December 2022, with a stronger presence in key markets such as France, the U.K., Spain and the US.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Vivendi, the parent company of French pay TV banner Canal+ Group,has sees revenues rise by 3.3% to €2.29 billion ($2.52 billion) during the first quarter of 2023. Vivendi attributes the growth to all its subsidiaries, in particular Studiocanal, the film and TV production and distribution company of Canal+, whose revenues went up by 13.6% compared with the first quarter of 2022 driven by the success of several films, including the comedy “Alibi.com 2” and “John Wick 4.” Among the several high profile deals signed by the company during the first quarter, Canal+ inked an agreement with French telco Orange to acquire all shares of its pay TV package OCS, as well as Orange Studio, the film and series co-production subsidiary.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMaxime Saada, the chairman and CEO of Canal+ Group and chair of its film and TV subsidiary Studiocanal, has joined the management board of Vivendi.The arrival of Saada within Vivendi’s management board is part of the company’s recent strategic moves and underscores its ambition to continue growing its international scope and focus on content, media and communications. The management board, which remains chaired by Arnaud de Puyfontaine (who is also CEO), welcomed several other new members alongside Saada.Last month, Vivendi, whose supervisory board is chaired by Yannick Bolloré, launched a takeover bid for Lagardère, the French publishing and travel retail conglomerate, following the distribution of 60% of the share capital of Universal Music Group and its listing on the Amsterdam stock exchange.