IDBoox reports that Grupo Planeta and Vivendi are negotiating a full buy-out of the French publishing group Editis.
The Editis group, explains IDBoox, is made up of publishing houses such as: Nathan, Robert Laffont, Plon, City Press, Bordas and Le Cherche Midi, and has a group value of 900 million euros ($1 billion), generating 750 million euros ($879 million) revenue in 2017.
Pierre Conte, CEO of Editis said,:
This approach demonstrates the interest of a large French group of international ambition for Editis. It highlights the strong positions of our group in the French-language publishing market. This project is that of bringing the world of Publishing closer to that of Audiovisual. What unites Grupo Planeta and Vivendi is a shared passion for creating and discovering talent “
For Vivendi, this acquisition, which would add Editis to Canal +, Gameloft, Universal Music Group and Havas,
would be another major step in the construction of an integrated group focused on the media, content and communication (that) would benefit from a unique ecosystem to attract and retain the best talent and enrich the Group’s content portfolio. School publishing would also allow Vivendi to better know the younger generations, “the statement added.
To achieve this, says ID Boox, Vivendi could sell half of its Universal Music shares to partners. a suggestion confirmed today by Telecompaper, which says the sales will be completed within the next eighteen months.
Telecompaper suggests the Universal Music sell-off could bring in $15 billion (Bloomberg Intelligence estimate) and asserts the deal, if completed, will bring Editis full circle, as the company was originally created in 2004 by grouping the publishing assets of Vivendi and media conglomerate Lagardere.
