To analyse. Already more than two years of hesitation, of unanswered questions. The 9,300 employees of the two main publishing groups in France, Hachette Livre – 57% owned since June by Vivendi, which is awaiting a green light from the European competition authorities to have operational control – and Editis, which is also to Vincent Bolloré’s galaxy, live on a volcano.
At the height of the summer, Vivendi abandoned its initial plan: to merge into a megagroup Hachette and Editis. Such a project, dreaded since Vivendi entered the capital of Lagardère in April 2020, had aroused the hostility of the entire profession and risked, except to retrocede whole sections in the school, the extracurricular, the pocket and especially in distribution and dissemination, to be blocked by the European Commission.
Vivendi therefore chose to get rid of Editis (Plon, Bordas, 10/18, etc.) to get hold of Lagardère Publishing (Hachette Livre, Larousse, Livre de poche, Hatier, etc.), which was more profitable and well established internationally. Why such a delay before discovering the moon? Vincent Bolloré knew that when Vivendi Universal Publishing (VUP) was taken over by Hachette twenty years ago – the operation was then carried out in the opposite direction – the buyer had to sell 60% of the assets. Traumatizing the teams to give birth to Editis…
In this group, this release was perceived with a certain relief, since the company – which will change ownership for the fifth time in twenty years – will not be dismembered. But the unpredictability remains total. The disposal process aims for Editis to be listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and each Vivendi shareholder will receive Editis shares in proportion to those held in the parent company. The Bolloré group, controlled by the family of the Breton businessman, undertakes to sell its 29% of Vivendi to a third party, which will become the reference shareholder of Editis. “A nebulous montage that does not seem reassuring”judge Martine Prosper, general secretary of the CFDT Livre-Edition. “What investments will the buyer devote to the company? »asks Isabelle Menil, central union representative of Editis, who defends the balance sheet of Michèle Benbunan, the general manager.
Avoid Antitrust Problems
The project has still not been notified to Brussels. Three banks, including Lazard and BNP Paribas, are responsible for this operation. Arnaud de Puyfontaine, chairman of the executive board of Vivendi, does not want to sell Editis to a fund or a French competitor, in order to avoid new antitrust problems or create too big a competitor for Hachette. Fimalac, the group of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, could be interested in the shares of the Bolloré group, but, like the others, has still not had access to the file. A revenge for the one who, in 1990, had unsuccessfully attempted an assault on Gallimard, as Jean-Yves Mollier recalls in A brief history of book concentration (Libertalia, 176 pages, 10 euros)?
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