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Bolloré eyes Vivendi expansion

Vivendi’s chairman Vincent Bolloré looks set to embark on an ambitious expansion strategy after strengthening his position at the French media group.

Bolloré: patient about  future acquisitions

Bolloré: patient about
future acquisitions

Bolloré has increased his stake in Vivendi, Canal+ Group’s parent, over recent weeks to nearly 15% and on Friday fought off other shareholders who sought to remove his ‘double-voting’ rights.

The developments have paved the way for the billionaire businessman to expand Vivendi’s operations following a series of sell-offs, which include telecoms company SFR and video game firm Activision Blizzard.

The deals have netted the company more than US$10bn, and Bolloré said that he “strongly believes that Vivendi can develop itself a lot.”

Bollore, who was overseeing his first annual meeting of Vivendi as chairman, said the firm was now in a position to become a major content group and would be eyeing up more acquisitions.

The company currently includes pay TV operator Canal+ and Universal Music Group, and earlier this month offered to buy video site Dailymotion for around €250m (US$271m), but Bolloré said the firm would be patient when looking for other acquisitions.

This month Vivendi was linked with a takeover of European satcaster Sky, although the French company subsequently denied the reports. Rumours of interest in fellow French media group Lagardère and Italy’s Mediaset have also emerged.

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