LVMH seals deal on French titles
By Erina Lin, Friday 28 December 2007 at 23:11 :: Media Ownership :: #1031 :: rss
The long-running LVMH-Les Echos deal came to an end this week, as LVMH officially took control of the leading French financial paper and agreed to sell the number two paper, La Tribune.
LVMH and Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, signed the final agreement on Christmas Eve, transferring Les Echos to the luxury goods group for €240 million.
LVMH has also signed a separate agreement to sell the paper La Tribune to Alain Weill, the head of NextRadioTV, which owns the BFM business news radio station. However, due to the anti-trust regulations, LVMH must ensure La Tribune can compete against Les Echos for several years.
LVMH has agreed to recapitalise La Tribune to the tune of about €40 million, including a deal to guarantee a certain volume of advertising for two years, and a bonus payment to staff, according to The Financial Times. It has also ensured not to create advertising links between Les Echos and the LVMH financial magazine Investir for a certain period, as well as to maintain the existing relationship with La Tribune.
Oppositions from staff were strong for both deals, with journalists at the dailies went on strike several times during negotiations. A source close to LVMH said on Wednesday the saga was now “definitively closed.”
Nicolas Beytout, the former chief news editor at the French daily Le Figaro and once editor of Les Echos, has been named chairman of the paper’s board.
La Tribune journalists have also been anxious about the results of the sale to Weill, reportedly for a symbolic €1. The paper has been losing money for several years, reporting a deficit of €17 million in 2006, and according to the Financial Times, LVMH earlier this year injected €37 million into the struggling paper.
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