Vivendi, which is in the process of absorbing the Lagardère group, will sell the people magazine Gala under pressure from the Brussels antitrust authorities, according to an internal document consulted on Tuesday April 11 by Agence France-Presse (AFP), confirming information of the media L’Informé.

“Vivendi is forced to propose the sale of Gala”, which the European Commission “considers a direct competitor of Paris Match on the people press market”, explained Claire Léost, president of the Prisma Media group in an email addressed to its employees.

Until now Gala was affiliated with Prisma Media, owned by Vivendi, while Paris Match is owned by the Lagardère group. Asked by AFP, the Vivendi group declined to comment.

Vivendi, the group of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, had risen in 2022 to 57% of the capital of Lagardère after a tough shareholder battle, but the finalization of this takeover is still subject to the authorization of the European Commission. The latter will render its decision on June 14 at the latest.

“Teams are stunned”

Until this announcement, this project mainly stumbled on two points due to European competition rules: that of the people press and that of publishing.

Regarding the publishing sector, Vivendi had resolved in mid-March to sell 100% of the Editis publishing group in order to be able to absorb its rival Hachette, a subsidiary of Lagardère. Vivendi announced on March 14 that it would enter into “exclusive negotiations with the International Media Invest [IMI] group, a subsidiary of the Czech holding company CMI founded by Daniel Kretinsky [indirect shareholder of Le Monde], for the sale of 100% of the capital of Editis”. Vincent Bolloré’s group had specified “having received several offers for the sale of the entire capital of Editis”.

“Teams are stunned. It’s a huge mess, in our opinion,” Emmanuel Vire, elected representative of the SNJ-CGT union, told Prisma Media. According to him, the announcement was made during an extraordinary CSE (social and economic committee, the staff representation body) which was held on Tuesday morning. The Gala teams were informed at the same time. In 2022, Gala sales fell 4.72% year-on-year, reaching 127,933 copies in France, according to data from the Alliance for Press and Media Figures (ACPM).