(Reuters) – Chairman of the board of the German media group Bertelsmann, Thomas Rabe, wishes to relaunch the aborted merger between the French broadcasters M6 and TF1, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The two French broadcasters, who planned to merge to deal with the rise of American continuous broadcasting platforms (“streaming”), had finally given up their project in 2022, believing that competition regulations made the operation unrelevant.
According to the initial agreement, Bouygues, French conglomerate and the majority shareholder of TF1, would have ended up controlling the merged group with a 30%participation. The parent company of M6, Bertelsmann, would have been the second largest shareholder with 16%.
According to Thomas Rabe’s statements to the Financial Times, the merger would create a streaming champion capable of competing with American platforms such as Netflix and Apple TV+, and the operation would be “highly” synergistic.
The Chairman of the Manager of Bertelsmann said he was ready to re -examine the merger “as soon as the regulatory authorities indicate that they are ready to adopt a more open approach”.
Bouygues also declared to the Financial Times sharing the point of view of Thomas Rabe, believing that a rapprochement between TF1 and M6 could still be envisaged if “the legal and regulatory conditions allow it”.
Contacted by Reuters, Bertelsmann did not wish to make comments beyond the declarations of his manager at the FT.
Bouygues did not respond to requests for comments from Reuters immediately.
TF1 and M6 reportedly reported 3.7 billion euros in 2024, for combined market capitalization valued at 3.6 billion euros, according to the Financial Times.
Around 9:07 am GMT, the title of the TF1 group takes 1.61% at 8.86 euros and the M6 ​​share gained 2.5% at 13.96 euros, among the strongest increases in SBF 120 which abandons 0.34% at the same time.
(Written by Kritika Singh in Bangalore; with the contribution of Klaus Lauer to Berlin, Etienne Breban, Elena Smirnova; edited by Augustin Turpin and Blandine Hénault)
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