Everything is just noise and rumors. In early January, an Italian site has state of the negotiations concerning the French market is led by three media groups magazine : Lagardère Active (Elle, Télé 7 jours…), Marie Claire (Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan…) and the Italian Mondadori (Closer, Biba, Grazia, Science & Vie etc.). “Ménage à trois “, headline in the Milano Finanza, referring to a planned merger with a joint venture, which could see the light of day by the end of 2018.
Such a joint venture would seek to reduce, by pooling, the cost of distribution, or subscription management, accounting or advertising. The Italian press imagine a possible listing, which could allow some of the partners to disengage. If one takes into account all of the securities, such a group would generate a turnover of around one billion euros.
For Jerome Bodin, an analyst in the media at Natixis, ” this would make a lot of sense from an industrial point of view. It would allow the creation of a leader much more solid. The new group would be more stronger to face the competition of the actors in the digital, especially on certain target keys such as women. “
No confirmation
However, the scenario of such a common structure is not confirmed. None of the three groups concerned comments on the assumptions discussed in the press. Two sources close to the matter believe even improbable. It remains that discussions are held between Lagardère, Mondadori, and Marie Claire, in which Lagard * re has been a shareholder with 42 %.
Contacts exist, in fact, quite a long time, since at least the end of 2015 : at this time, the sale of certain magazines at Lagardère Active, Télé 7 jours, France on Sunday, and Here Paris, had given rise to…
