From Mediaset e Vivendi we return to breathe an air of peace. The two companies have resumed talks to find an agreement and this time the first step has come from the Berlusconi family. At the request of the Biscione, in fact, the Court of Milan has given time to the two litigants to find a settlement within the next hearing, scheduled for the 22 November.
Mediaset's goal is to carry on the project of Mfe, the European content holding company with registered office in the Netherlands which will control both the Cologno and Spanish TVs. Vivendi, a minority shareholder of the Biscione with 28,8%, has so far opposed this project.
To convince the French, Berlusconi would have offered to change two articles related to the future governance of Mfe, refraining from lowering the threshold for mandatory takeover bids from 30 to 25% and above all canceling the prohibition on participation in shareholders' meetings for parties who are in dispute with the company.
In this way, Vivendi would once again be able to vote in the Mfe shareholders' meetings, in which it holds 9,98% of the voting rights directly and another 19,9% through Simon, the trust company in which the French group, at the behest of the Antitrust, has merged two thirds of its stake in Mediaset.
In short, it seems that Vivendi has succeeded in forcing Mediaset to negotiate. At this point, it is likely that the negotiations can also be extended to the other open fronts between the two companies: from the lawsuits against Vivendi's Daily Motion, to Mediaset Premium pay TV (now sold to Sky) than the French they declined to buy in July 2016, starting hostilities with Mediaset.
