The proposals were submitted by a tandem formed by Xavier Niel (Iliad group) and MediaForEurope (the television group founded by Silvio Berlusconi), by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, already present in several French media, and by FL Entertainment, the group side of audiovisual production and sports betting controlled by the French Stéphane Courbit, associated in particular for the occasion with Rodolphe Saadé, the boss of the giant of the maritime transport CMA-CGM.
Contacted on Saturday, RTL Group declined to comment. Through its subsidiary RTL Group, Bertelsmann holds some 48% of the capital of the M6 group (the TV channels M6, W9, 6ter, Teva, Gulli and the radio stations RTL, RTL2, Fun Radio).
Bertelsmann “in no hurry”
At the beginning of 2021, Bertelsmann, which wishes to withdraw from the French market, had made the risky choice of a merger of M6 with its rival TF1. But this marriage was suddenly canceled a week ago in the face of the reluctance of the French competition authority, which made its green light conditional on the sale of the TF1 or M6 channels to another actor, to avoid the creation of a juggernaut. which, according to her, would have distorted the market in particular.
Following this cancellation, Bertelsmann launched a new “market test”. He had invited groups interested in taking over M6 to come forward before Friday afternoon.
The German group claims to be “in no hurry” to sell, and to be ready to keep its stake in M6 if the offers for the takeover seem insufficient. But the decisions will have to be taken quickly, because due to French legislation on television channels, M6 will no longer be able to change shareholders for 5 years after the renewal of its broadcasting authorization, which expires in May 2023.