Vivendi reportedly eyeing Sky TV
After offloading two telecom units, French multinational media company Vivendi is now looking to pick up video and TV assets. Vivendi this week entered into exclusive talks with Orange to purchase 80% of the telecom’s Dailymotion, one of the largest video platforms in the world.
At the same time, a report surfaced that Vivendi may make a bid for the pay-TV group Sky, which could cost as much as $41.5 billion, although Vivendi issued a quick denial, according to Bloomberg.
The Dailymotion deal, which is relatively more modest, is estimated at $235.9 million and would make Vivendi and Orange partners in the video platform as Orange would retain 20% of the operations. The two companies were previously rivals in the telecom field when Vivendi operated SFR, which it recently sold to Altice’s Numericable. Vivendi also recently received regulatory approval allowing it to sell GVT, its telecom unit in Brazil, to Telefónica.
Vincent Bolloré, chairman of Vivendi’s supervisory board, hailed the deal as an opportunity to expand its media offerings. “This is a first step in our ambition to create a large, global group that is focused on media and content,” he said.
Orange chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard said that Dailymotion had increased its audience two and half times since the telecom bought it in 2011, and that the deal with Vivendi will spur further growth.
“Our partnership with Vivendi will enable Dailymotion, in which we remain a 20% shareholder, to accelerate its growth internationally and to enhance its content offer,” Richard said. “The proceeds from this transaction will enable Orange to reinforce its efforts in the digital ecosystem.”
Dailymotion is the No. 2 aggregation and distribution platform in the world, with over 2.5 billion videos seen per month. The company had sales of $69.6 million in 2014.
More telecom news from Europe, the Middle East and Africa:
• Slovak Telekom offers 49% stake on London and Bratislava stock exchanges. Slovakia’s largest operator this week said it will list shares amounting to 49% of the company on the two exchanges. However, Deutsche Telekom, which owns 51% of Slovak Telecom, plans to hold onto its shares.
• MTN could see $1 billion from lifting of Iran sanctions. South Africa-based MTN Group said the changing situation in Iran could allow it to access $1 billion from its Iranian unit, Irancell, Reuters reported. MTN owns 49% of Irancell, which is the No. 2 operator in the country. MTN could recoup accumulated dividends and a loan repayment from the unit, which it hadn’t been allowed to repatriate previously because of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other Western countries.
• Vodafone UK offers 4G on all its plans. Facing increasing pressure from two big telecom acquisitions in the U.K., Vodafone this week announced it will offer British customers LTE access with its 12- and 24-month bundles at no extra cost. In the U.K., BT has offered to buy the current No. 1 mobile operator EE, and Hutchison Whampoa, which runs the operator Three, has bid to acquire its U.K. rival Telefónica’s O2.
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