Mediaset Fears Hostile Takeover Attempt from Vivendi

MILAN/PARIS: Vivendi has acquired 3 percent of Mediaset and aims to acquire up to 20 percent of the firm in a move the Italian media company has labeled as the beginnings of a hostile takeover attempt.

In April of this year, Vivendi and Mediaset concluded a “strategic and industrial partnership” that would encompass the joint production and distribution of content and the creation of a global OTT service. As part of the deal, Vivendi would acquire 3.5 percent of Mediaset and 100 percent of Mediaset Premium. Mediaset would secure 3.5 percent of Vivendi’s share capital. That deal fell through and Mediaset and Fininvest subsequently filed suit against Vivendi.

“Vivendi believes that the strategic interest of the industrial partnership announced on April 8, 2016, supersedes the stakes of the lawsuit,” the company said in announcing its 3.01-percent investment. “Becoming a Mediaset shareholder is, for Vivendi, in line with the group’s intention to develop its activities in Southern Europe and its strategic ambitions as a major international, European-based, media and content group…. Vivendi intends to continue to acquire Mediaset shares depending on market conditions, until possibly becoming Mediaset’s second-largest industrial shareholder, which, to begin with, could represent between 10 percent and 20 percent of the Mediaset share capital.”

Mediaset issued a statement in response to the investment, noting, “This action confirms the intention of Vivendi, previously noted by Mediaset on 26 July 2016, to shift from an industrial agreement to a hostile takeover. The project is now even more disturbing given that the summer turnaround resulted in a loss in Mediaset’s stock exchange value of around 30 percent, a loss which Vivendi has taken advantage of today by making a massive market investment.”

The Mediaset statement concludes, “At this time Mediaset’s main concern is to protect the interests of all of the company’s shareholders, to pursue the ongoing dispute, updating the terms to take account of the latest developments, and to assess the real aim of the generic action taken by the French; as well as their consistency with Mediaset’s strategy.”