Zodiak CEO to exit post-Banijay merger

Zodiak Media CEO Marc-Antoine d’Halluin is to exit the company following the confirmation of its merger with European production giant Banijay.

A spokeswoman for Zodiak confirmed d’Halluin, who has overseen a major restructure at the company during his near two-year tenure, will step down once the firms come together.

The parties are aiming to complete this process ahead of Mipcom in October, having yesterday confirmed the merger would take place after months of speculation.

Banijay’s Stéphane Courbit and CEO Marco Bassetti will be taking over the combined business, which will have total revenues of US$1bn, according to Banijay. Zodiak has so far declined to comment on the deal.

Former Endemol France boss Courbit, who set up Banijay in 2008, will become chairman while former Endemol president Bassetti will be CEO.

Fallout from the merger is expected to continue, with Zodiak and Banijay’s activities being complementary in some areas but clashing in others, particularly in France and Scandinavia, where both companies have a strong presence. Zodiak has a weaker presence in the US, where Banijay has some strength, while the reverse is true of the UK.

The new group will have a footprint in more than 18 territories producing entertainment, drama, factual, reality entertainment, docu-drama, children’s and animation.

Each company boasts large catalogues of formats and scripted programming that is sold around the world by their distribution outfits, Banijay International and Zodiak Rights, headed up by Emmanuelle Namiech and Tim Mutimer respectively.

The deal comes in the wake of Endemol, Shine Group and Core Media merging and Discovery and Liberty Global acquiring All3Media, with this recent consolidation in the global TV business understood to have been a driving factor behind the merger.

Moreover, the pair has a mutual shareholder in Italian conglomerate De Agostini, which holds a majority stake in Zodiak and a minority stake in Banijay via DEA Capital.

Banijay last month confirmed talks with Zodiak were in progress, whereas the latter declined to comment. Industry observers saw this as telling – Courbit and Bassetti were said to be the ones pushing for a deal, whereas d’Halluin wasn’t thought to be keen on a combination.

C21 understands the talks to reach the agreement have been convoluted, with the deal said to have stalled on more than one occasion.

Banijay is said to be in better financial shape than Zodiak, which is understood to be heavily in debt. Some sources suggest that rather than being a merger, the deal is more a case of Courbit bailing out Zodiak, although Banijay – which he controls through his investment vehicle LOV Group – is also thought to be burdened by loan repayments.

At Mipcom last year, d’Halluin had high hopes for adventure reality format Dropped, from Zodiak’s Mastiff business in Sweden. However, tragedy struck this March when 10 people were killed after two helicopters collided during filming in Argentina for TF1’s version of the show. Lavish Canal+ period drama Versailles is now top of the company’s slate.

The Banijay Group currently includes such companies as Banijay Productions France, Nordisk Film TV (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), and Banijay Studios North America, which includes Keeping Up With the Kardashians producer Bunim/Murray Productions and Sons of Liberty maker Stephen David Entertainment.

Zodiak Media, meanwhile, is headquartered in Paris and owns more than 40 companies operating in 15 countries. It holds the rights to properties such as Wife Swap, The Secret Millionaire, Totally Spies and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

There have been numerous staff changes across the Zodiak Group since D’Halluin replaced David Frank as CEO of Zodiak Media.

Those to have left the company in the past year include Karen Vermeulen, David Hallam and Nigel Pickard, who has since joined former Zodiak Rights CEO Matthew Frank and his brother David at their start-up, which launched last year.

This came four years after Zodiak acquired production and distribution company RDF Media Group, which David Frank founded more than 20 years ago, for £150m (US$253.4m).

For more analysis of the merger, see C21’s Perspective from last month.