Clowning around with an Espace clone

 
Publishers Tamedia spares no effort to acquire 100 percent ownership of Espace Media The Bern-based Espace Media Groupe has founded a new company called Espace Medien AG. The only strange thing is that, apart from the slightly different name and the smaller share capital, the new company is virtually identical to the first one - also in terms of the composition of the board of directors. What, please, is being played here? According to Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer, the situation is as follows: Tamedia took over 80 percent of Espace Media Groupe last year, but now holds just under 99 percent thanks to generous offers to the other shareholders. But Tamedia wants 100 percent. Only then can the cross-shareholdings (Tamedia in Berner Zeitung, Berner Zeitung in SonntagsZeitung) be cleared up. But how do you get rid of the last shareholders who won't sell voluntarily? Legally, this is only possible by means of a merger, says Zimmer. For example, with a merger of Tamedia and Espace Media Group. But that's not what they want in Zurich, because they don't want to give up their local roots in Bern. So Espace Media Groupe was effectively cloned - with the difference that the clone Espace Medien AG is 100 percent owned by Tamedia. In a next step, Espace Media Groupe will then be merged with the clone, which will later be renamed Espace Media Groupe again.     
 
Markus Knöpfli