Le Monde saved for the time being
The French daily newspaper Le Monde has been saved for the time being. The paper, which has fallen into serious financial distress, is set to be controlled in the future by investors associated with the left-wing cultural patron Pierre Bergé. On Monday, the board of directors of the Le Monde Group accepted a takeover bid to that effect by a narrow majority of 11 out of a total of 20 votes. The trio led by Bergé is expected to have to raise between 80 and 120 million euros.
For the journalists at Abendzeitung, the arrival of the investors marks a historic turning point. Until now, they have exercised power in the company through the editorial company SRM and its partners. With the entry of Bergé and his partners, the journalists' share of the capital will now be diluted. The editorial team will lose control of the newspaper for the first time. Bergé, who is joining forces with the banker Matthieu Pigasse and the founder of the internet provider Free, Xavier Niel, wants to guarantee the editors their freedom. There should even be a blocking minority. This could be the basis for independence, said Monde director Eric Fottorino recently.
The bidding war made headlines due to the interference of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He favored a group of investors led by the owner of the news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Claude Perdriel, and the partly state-owned telephone group Orange (France Télécom) as financial backers. However, the latter threw in the towel after clearly losing in the preliminary vote of the Monde journalists' association. On Friday, more than 90 percent of the journalists voted in favor of Bergé and partners. Among the employees, even 100 percent were in favor of the long-time partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who died in 2008, and supporter of socialist Ségolène Royal.
The bidding war made headlines due to the interference of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He favored a group of investors led by the owner of the news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, Claude Perdriel, and the partly state-owned telephone group Orange (France Télécom) as financial backers. However, the latter threw in the towel after clearly losing in the preliminary vote of the Monde journalists' association. On Friday, more than 90 percent of the journalists voted in favor of Bergé and partners. Among the employees, even 100 percent were in favor of the long-time partner of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who died in 2008, and supporter of socialist Ségolène Royal.
(Image: Keystone)
