The operation is a big one, but "it does not lead to the establishment of a dominant position". This is the opinion of the Antitrust on the acquisition in Italy of Hachette Rusconi by Hearst Communication. The American communications giant is bringing home all the international publications of Lagardere, the French publishing group which also owned Hachette Rusconi, one at a time.
So far the Delaware company, which has annual revenues of between 3 and 4 billion euros, has spent 640 million to buy around 100 Lagardere titles in 14 countries outside France, as well as 50 websites and numerous applications for mobile phones and tablets. With the Italian operation, Herast acquires not only the exclusive control of Hachette Rusconi, active in the publishing and advertising sales sector, but also the shareholdings that the company held in other companies in our country. Among these, Alte Tecnologie Editoriali srl and Hachette Lifestyle Media Srl. Several periodicals distributed in Italy, such as Gente, Gioia, Elle, Gente Motori and Yacht Capital, also passed into the hands of the Americans.
Although numerous, the publications as a whole "present various elements of differentiation - reads the weekly bulletin of the Antitrust -, among which, in the first place, the frequency and type of editorial product". Furthermore, "following the notified concentration, the combined market share of the parties will be 10-15%" in the publishing sector, "5-10%" in that of advertising sales. For these reasons, the Authority believes that the operation did not infringe the competition rules.
