Daniel Křetínský in an archive picture.
Paris/Prague – French media conglomerate Vivendi is in exclusive talks with International Media Invest (IMI), a subsidiary of Daniel Křetínský's Czech Media Invest (CMI), about its takeover of a 100% stake in the company Editis. Vivendi announced this in a press release. Editis is the second largest publishing house in France and the transaction will have to be approved by the European Commission.
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CMI board member Daniel Častvaj confirmed the start of exclusive negotiations on the acquisition of Editis. “We thank Vivendi for the trust. IMI believes that the approval process in Brussels and negotiations with the bodies representing the employees will turn out positively, and Editis will thus gain the means to ensure its independence and further development,” Častvaj told ČTK.
The company Vivendi is controlled by French billionaire Vincent Bollore. The sale of the Editis publishing house is part of Vivendi's strategy to overcome regulatory hurdles in its takeover of media company Lagardère.
Vivendi said in a press release that the exclusive deal with Křetínský means it is abandoning its earlier plan to spin off Editis and list it on the Paris stock exchange. the largest publishing group in the world and now falls under Lagardère. The possible merger of Hachette with Editis has provoked criticism from independent publishers and led to the fact that the Editis publishing house lost some well-known authors, reports Reuters.
Křetínský already has a minority stake in the French newspaper Le Monde. Through the holding company Czech Media Investment (CMI), he also owns several French press titles, such as Elle, Tele7 Jours and the news magazine Marianne.
Křetínský also applied for the takeover of French television M6. But in the end it remained in the hands of the German company Bertelsmann.
In the Czech Republic, together with his business partner Patrik Tkáč, Křetínský controls the company Czech News Center, whose portfolio includes, among others, the newspapers Blesk, Sport, Aha! and E15 or Reflex magazine.
