News
French telco to take 49% stake in NextRadioTV, enters deal talks for Altice Media Group France.
France’s SFR is gearing up to enter the content space by purchasing various media assets owned by parent company Altice, it emerged on Wednesday.
The telco has agreed to acquire Altice’s 49% stake in Groupe News Participation, parent company of French media group NextRadioTV. The other 51% of Groupe News Participation is held by NextRadioTV founder and CEO Alain Weill, who agreed to form the joint venture with Altice in July 2015.
NextRadioTV owns TV station BFMTV and radio station RMC. It also owns various TV channels and Websites covering subjects such as news, sport and documentaries.
Wednesday’s transaction values NextRadioTV at €741 million.
In addition, SFR has also entered exclusive talks to acquire Altice Media Group France, which publishes more than 20 titles including Libération, L’Express, and L’Expansion. It also owns an international news channel, i24, and organises events.
The deal under discussion values Altice Media Group at €241 million. SFR said the proposed transaction will be presented to bodies representing Altice Media Group’s employees for consultation before entering final negotiations.
"Both transactions represent a unique opportunity to develop SFR into a true cross-media content publisher, capitalising on a highly diversified portfolio of premium brands," SFR said, in a statement. "The acquisitions support SFR’s business strategy by accelerating the deployment of the global convergence of telecoms, media/content and advertising."
