Vincent Bollorè, the French tycoon of Vivendi, had already decided for some time to leave his posts on the occasion of his seventieth birthday - which will take place on April 120 next - and of the XNUMXth anniversary of the French group, but now there are compelling reasons - both judicial and health - which push for an acceleration of farewell and the passing of the baton to his four children. Bollorè himself anticipated it in the book "Dictionnaire amoureux de l'enterprise et des enterpreneurs", as reported by the agency Reuters.
But to replace a charismatic character like the Norman entrepreneur, who for a long time also had a leading role in Italian finance and in particular in Mediobanca and in Generali, it won't be easy at all and the first signs of Vivendi slipping can already be seen with the naked eye. Above all in Tim, where Vivendi, which is the largest shareholder in the telephone company with a 23,7% equity stake, has had a long string of flops. Now he risks collecting a new sensational slip.
It has not escaped the most attentive observers that Vivendi, through indiscretions leaked to the Italian newspapers, has been searching for days of delegitimize the current president guarantee of Tim, Salvatore Rossi, with the idea of replacing him with a man closely trusted by the French. But only those who don't know the Italian reality and those who don't know the value of a man of institutions how Salvatore Rossi could make such a blunder.
Let it go to port the KKR takeover bid on Tim or that an alternative project based on the Vivendi-Cdp axis and aimed at creating a single network is born, having Tim at the head of a man of institutions of great independence and absolute morality is a point of reference for anyone and above all for those who he will find himself, like Vivendi, dealing with governments and with the highest Italian institutions. Is it possible that no one told the French who Salvatore Rossi is, former General Manager of the Bank of Italy and in more than cordial relations with Premier Mario Draghi, with whom he worked on via Nazionale, with the Minister of Economy, Daniele Franco, another former colleague in Bank of Italy, and naturally, but not least, with the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella?
So far Vivendi has seemed to live on the moon and does not seem to have learned anything from previous blunders but there is always time to open your eyes. Before it's too late.
