Mediaset-Vivendi, the investigation into the takeover ends with the filing

It took seven years and an “armed peace” between the Biscione and the French of Vivendì to arrive at yesterday’s decision by judge Marta Pollicino who accepted the request of the prosecutor Silvia Bonardi, advanced in November 2021, to dismiss the investigation into the climb of the French to Mediaset.

The investigation involved the heads of the French group, Vincent Bolloré and Arnauld De Puyfontaine, accused of market manipulation and hindering the exercise of the functions of the public supervisory authorities. The judge also closed, only for Bollorè, a further episode of market abuse aimed at Groupama’s entry into Premafin (the old financial company of the Ligresti group) which dates back to the autumn of 2010, and which took place through the companies Financiere De l’Odet and Financiere Du Pereguet, attributable to him.

The investigations, which began at the end of 2016 following a complaint from Fininvest and Mediaset, had started after Vivendì had risen to almost 30 percent in the Cologno Monzese group, closing in December 2020. According to the allegations contained in the complaint by Mediaset’s lawyers, having canceled the agreement with which, in July 2016, the company Vivendi of the French Vincent Bolloré would have purchased Mediaset Premium with a further share swap of 3.5 per cent between the two companies, would have created the conditions «to artificially lower the value of the Mediaset share» to then relaunch a takeover of the Biscione «at discount prices», leading the French group to hold 28.8 percent of Silvio Berlusconi’s company.

In May 2021, there was then the peace agreement between the two groups on the various ongoing disputes and a reduction in the presence of Vivendi in the Biscione, set at the 20 percent that still resists. Now archiving definitively closes accounts with the past. For the future we will have to wait for Piersilvio Berlusconi’s moves.