Sipa takes over French-language service from AP
The French news agency Sipa has acquired the French-language division of the Associated Press (AP). The acquisition was finalized on Thursday following several months of negotiations and will not result in any layoffs.
Erick Monjalous, Deputy Director General at Sipa, said this when asked by the news agency SDA. The jobs will also be retained in the AP newsroom in French-speaking Switzerland, which belongs to AP France. The agency employs six journalists in its offices in Bern and Lausanne.
The takeover gives Sipa an exclusive license to use AP's international news in French-speaking countries, Sipa wrote in a press release on Thursday. The two agencies have already been working together for some time. Sipa has been distributing the American agency's images in France since 2001.
Sipa wants to offer a complete range of texts, images and videos in French. In this respect, the acquisition of AP France is a decisive step, Sipa CEO Olivier Mégéan is quoted as saying in the press release. This new offering for media, their users and for companies should be available from the fall.
Sipa was taken over by the German news agency dapd in May 2011. For its part, dapd emerged from the takeover of the German-language service of the AP news agency by the German Despatch Service (DDP) in 2009.
SDA works together with DAPD in German-speaking Switzerland. With the takeover of AP France, DAPD becomes AP's most important partner on a global level. (SDA)
