Vivendi in exclusive talks with IMI for Editis sale

Vivendi announced on Tuesday 14th March that it has entered into exclusive negotiations for the 100% takeover of Editis, France’s second largest publisher, by International Media Invest (IMI).

IMI is a subsidiary of Czech Media Invest (CMI), which was founded by Daniel Kretinsky, who is an indirect shareholder in the newspaper Le Monde.

Vivendi’s takeover of the Lagardère group, which owns France’s leading book publisher Hachette Livre, the parent company of Hachette UK, is being investigated by the European Commission for the anti-trust implications, with the sale of Editis seen as a measure to facilitate the takeover.

The announcement of a buyer for Editis has been postponed several times. The idea was for a distribution of the publisher’s shares to Vivendi shareholders and a stock market listing.

Media reports said there was a shortlist of three candidates, including a triumvirate made up of Kretinsky and entrepreneurs close to Vincent Bolloré, the power behind Vivendi. Editis staff opposed the arrangement. It appears the European Commission did too.

Isabelle Wekstein, a Paris-based lawyer who has represented authors, publishers and booksellers in testimony to the EC against the takeover, said the announcement “doesn’t resolve the problem of the strengthened position of Hachette Livre, once it is controlled by Vivendi".

The sale of 100% of Editis’ share is "an improvement on the initial proposal, but we need to know details of Kretinsky’s plan for the group,” Wekstein told The Bookseller. She pointed out that his was the first time that the three branches of the book industry have spoken with one voice.

Bolloré is a corporate “predator”, and “a danger to democracy,” according to Erik Orsenna, author, advisor to former French president François Mitterrand and member of the French Academy, the guardian of the French language. Orsenna was speaking in a recent interview about his latest book Histoire d’un orgre (Story of an Ogre), where Bolloré is not mentioned by name, but is the main protagonist.