And the winner is…. neither Quebecor, nor Reworld Media, nor Pierre Édouard Stérin, nor the audiovisual producer Stéphane Courbit, but… Daniel Kretinsky! The Czech billionaire, already owner of the weeklies Elle et Marianne and indirect shareholder of the daily Le Monde and who granted a loan of 14 million euros to Liberation, entered into exclusive negotiations with the French media giant Vivendi with a view to acquiring 100% Editis.
The second largest French publishing group hosts around fifty publishers, including Plon, Robert Laffont, Julliard, Les Presses de la cité, Le Cherche-Midi, XO, Pocket and 10/18 paperback formats, and Nathan and Bordas in the school. At the end of July, the parent company Vivendi, owner of Editis since 2019, had warned that it would sell the company in order to seize Hachette Livre (Grasset, Fayard, Calmann-Lévy, Stock, Le Livre de poche, Lattès, Hatier ). The publishing group’s turnover fell by 8% in 2022, to 789 million euros, for an operating profit (Ebita) down to 31 million euros, against 51 million in 2021. Vivendi recently had to devalue Editis by 300 million euros in its 2022 accounts, to take into account the difference between the acquisition value of Editis (bought for 829 million euros) and the “low price level offered by potential buyers “, had specified Arnaud de Puyfontaine, chairman of the management board of Vivendi.
We knew Daniel Kretinsky had been very motivated for several months by the takeover of Editis. An operation for which pleads in particular Denis Olivennes, chairman of the supervisory board of the press group CMI France, which houses, in addition to Elle and Marianne, Franc-tireur, Télé 7 jours and Usbek
Remarks intended to reassure both the employees of Editis, worried for several months about their future, and the European Commission, which is examining the takeover by Vivendi of Lagardère, parent company of Hachette Livre, and which is calling for a solid buyer for Editis . After months of discussions with the Commission, Vivendi has therefore resolved to sell Editis in full in order to seize the publishing juggernaut Hachette, a subsidiary of Lagardère. It now remains for Brussels to say whether it considers this “remedy” sufficient. In addition to the concentration in publishing, the European Commission is also concerned about a possible dominant position of Vivendi in people magazines. The group controlled by the Bolloré family already owns Gala and Here, Lagardère owning Paris Match. It remains to be seen whether Vivendi will attempt to validate the acquisition of Lagardère as it stands or whether it will commit to selling one of these three people magazines.
Our series on the big bang of publishingDiscotheque and secret meetings: the Bolloré clan is agitated in the Mecca of publishingHow Vincent Bolloré and Vivendi shook EditisNicolas Sarkozy and “the hatred of the Germanopratins”When the name of Vincent Bolloré paralyzes the French editionBig money and infidelities: the transfer window of writersAntoine Gallimard and Goncourt: suspicions, glories and fantasies
Consult our file: The Big Bang of publishing
