Bertelsmann CEO Revives $4.15B French TV Merger Plans
(Reuters) -German media group Bertelsmann's CEO Thomas Rabe wants to revive an aborted merger between French broadcasters M6 and TF1 , amid the European Union's softening regulations, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
In 2022, M6 Group and TF1 gave up their merger plan to fend off the rise of U.S. streaming platforms, saying antitrust requests made the deal irrelevant.
Under the initial deal, French conglomerate Bouygues would have ended up controlling the merged group with a 30% stake while M6's parent, Bertelsmann would be the second biggest shareholder with 16%.
The tie-up would create a streaming champion that can compete with U.S. platforms including Netflix and Apple TV+, Rabe told FT, adding that the deal would be "highly" synergistic.
Rabe told the newspaper he would be willing to revisit the merger "as soon as regulators indicate they are willing to take a more open-minded approach".
Bouygues told FT that it shared Rabe's view that a combination of TF1 and M6 still had merit when the "legal and regulatory conditions permit it".
Bertelsmann and Bouygues did not immediately respond to a Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.
TF1 and M6 had combined revenues of 3.7 billion euros ($4.27 billion) in 2024 and a combined market capitalization of 3.6 billion euros, the FT said.
($1 = 0.8667 euros)
(Reporting by Kritika Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Eileen Soreng)
