In a letter published in Thursday's Le Monde, journalists at the French financial daily Les Echos appealed to Bernard Arnault to quit talks to buy the newspaper because they say he does not know anything about the newspaper business.

“The newspaper business is a profession. It's not yours. We do not want you to send Les Echos into an infernal cycle of deficits. It would guarantee for certain that we lose our independence,” the letter stated.

Les Echos journalists also criticised Arnault's management of the French financial daily La Tribune, which he already owns, Guardian Unlimited has reported. Billionaire Arnault also owns the world's largest luxury goods maker, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.

“You have been injecting massive amounts of cash in La Tribune, our competitor, a daily that we respect but has neither been able to increase its readership nor to earn any money,” wrote Vincent de Feligonde, the president of the Les Echos' journalists' society - the group representing journalists' interests over editorial questions. “If you manage to grab Les Echos without the support of its editorial team and of a great number of its readers, how do you think you will create the climate of trust that is indispensable (for its development)? To each his profession.”

The staff of Les Echos, which is owned by Pearson Plc, went on strike three times in a month to protest Arnault's takeover bid through LVMH. The title's editor-in-chief, Jacques Barraux, has also approached French financial firm Fimalac in order to make a rival bid.

Pearson and LVMH came to an agreement earlier this week over the possible sale of Les Echos. If the deal moves forward, there will be no redundancies for three years and a supervisory board of 11, including three independent members and the editor-in-chief, in order to guarantee editorial independence.

The Les Echos staff has rejected the latest proposals.