Italian Anti-Trust Ruling May Offer Vivendi An Exit From Stream Deal
The merger of Italian pay-TV platform, Stream, with Vivendi Universal’s (VU) Telepiù (see Vivendi To Buy News Corp’s Stream In Italy, Says FT) has been cleared by the country’s anti-trust regulator. However, the regulatory authority has imposed certain restrictions on the deal that could offer VU an escape route from the deal.
Stream is joint-owned by Telecom Italia and News Corp and is valued by the Telepiù acquisition at around $390 million. It is understood that VU’s chief, Jean-Marie Messier, has been hoping to exit from the agreement for some time; both Telepiù and Stream are presently losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to the Financial Times.
The addition of regulatory limitations to the merger – one of which limits football broadcasting rights deals to two years – could well serve as a device for Messier to back out of the deal. Analysts expect a decision on the merger to be made by Telepiù as early as tomorrow.
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