Vivendi is willing to sell off its 23.15% stake in Telecom Italia to fund the takeover of Italian broadcaster Mediaset, according to anonymous Bloomberg sources close to the proceedings.
Orange is currently the rumored favorite to acquire Vivendi’s $3.23 billion valued holding in Telecom Italia, but the French operator has repeatedly denied any interest.
Readers of Faultline Online Reporter will be more than familiar with the Vivendi-Mediaset saga (otherwise dubbed the battle of the billionaires) – one which has taken a series of twists and turns since the proposed deal was first announced in early 2016.
Something that is abundantly clear about this week’s chapter is that a sale of Vivendi’s Telecom Italia stake would please Italian regulators, who were growing twitchy about the increasing control that French media giant Vivendi was asserting on the Italian market – having also rapidly accumulated a 28.8% holding in Mediaset since mid-December.
To sell off its Telecom Italia stake makes sense for Vivendi, as we cannot accept that it wants to own more than one Italian pay TV operator, and at some point, perhaps after a settlement with Mediaset, it is likely to buy one asset for Italy and consolidate the assets of the pay TV business Mediaset Premium.
But up until this week it didn’t look like Bollore’s Vivendi cared much which of them it ended up owning – now, if the sources are accurate, it could become clear that Mediaset is a priority for Vivendi after all. Meaning Vivendi is likely ready to reignite its plans for a European-wide mass media initiative.
Mediaset owner and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi spoke at a press conference in London last week, stating that an offer from Vivendi had not been received, but a new deal could be on the cards, so long as it “creates value and growth for Mediaset and makes industrial sense.” But Berlusconi couldn’t help but comment on the prior deal for Vivendi to acquire 100% of Mediaset Premium, which dissipated dramatically last year, calling it “the best possible deal.”
Berlusconi shrugged off suggestions that Mediaset is in the hat to buy a stake in Telecom Italia, but he hinted at a possible deal to license its content to Telecom Italia if the telco was interested in bundling this with its broadband offerings.
Last week, reports emerged from a local Italian media outfit that the investigation into the proposed takeover of Mediaset by Vivendi has not yet been blocked as news had suggested, with Italian regulator Agcom releasing a statement saying the probe is still ongoing. Four Agcom commissioners have stamped the acquisition as “invalid,” according to la Repubblica. Agcom says its investigation could take between 120 and 180 days – prior to this week’s developments.
It was only in November when Mediaset stated that it would not sell off its pay TV business for at least 12 months, claiming that Mediaset Premium has revenues similar to a year ago and its Infinity on-demand services had revenues of €457.4 million ($490.9 million) in the first nine months of 2016.
As for Orange as a potential buyer for Vivendi’s stake in Telecom Italia, chances are that it would be far more interested in getting its hands on a slice of Vivendi’s pay TV business Canal Plus in its native France.