The prolonged saga of talks between News Corp and Vivendi over the future of Telepiù is set to reach a conclusion with Rupert Murdoch’s organisation prepared to acquire the Italian pay-TV operator for almost one billion euros.
News Corp now seems likely to merge Telepiù with its own pay-TV operation Stream to create a single Italian entity. The two operators ran up huge losses competing for the broadcasting rights to Italian soccer.
Murdoch initially tabled a bid of E1.5 billion for Telepiù (see News Corp Set To Take Telepi) but the ongoing financial problems at Vivendi coupled with uncertainty over the state of the European pay-TV market led to the deal being renegotiated.
In a further development, Lagardare has today expressed an interest in Vivendi’s French publishing arm. Any deal would appease the country’s leaders who had feared that the titles would fall into foreign hands.
Jean-René Fourtou, the recently installed CEO at Vivendi, has already authorised the sale of its French consumer press division and the internet venture Vizzavi in a bid to raise £6.4 billion in the next two years.
