Vivendi chairman Arnaud de Puyfontaine has met with Mediaset CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi to discuss the stand off between the two media giants.
While the outcome of the talks isn’t yet clear, Vivendi’s next move is, to take the French holding in the company to 30%.
Vivendi’s Management Board met Monday and decided, with the Supervisory Board’s approval, to increase its investment in Mediaset by acquiring additional shares depending on market conditions within the limits of 30% of the share capital and voting rights.
In April Vivendi and Mediaset announced a ‘industrial partnership’ that later collapsed amid acrimony and is yet to find an amicable solution outside of the courts.
“As Vivendi believes that the strategic interest of the industrial partnership announced on April 8, 2016 supersedes the stakes of the lawsuit, Vivendi decided to become Mediaset’s second largest industrial shareholder by acquiring, to begin with, 20% of the Mediaset share capital,” the company said in a statement.
Vivendi says its presence in the Mediaset equity is 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.
