No de facto control over Telecom Italia: Vivendi, the first shareholder of the Italian telephone company, thus replied, by return of post, to Consob which asked it to clarify completely and once and for all in what form and to what extent its influence on Telecom.
It was obvious that Vivendi would answer like this, because otherwise the French group would have had to consolidate the huge debts of the Italian telephone company. To support his thesis, Vivendi cited deeds and resolutions of the shareholders' meeting but it remains to be seen whether Consob will be satisfied with the explanations that have been provided.
In addition to Consob, Vivendi must also keep an eye on the Italian Government, which, annoyed by the naval battle opened by France on the Saint Nazaire shipyards, has threatened the use of golden power on Telecom and summoned an antitrust expert to Palazzo Chigi as Luigi Fiorentino to monitor the whole affair.
Just to the Government, Vivendi, which is also engaged in the very difficult battle over Mediaset, sends word that the relationship between Telecom Italia and Canal Plus must be scaled down and that it will be nothing more than an editorial link. But Palazzo Chigi wants to see clearly and it is no coincidence that the hypotheses of spin-off of the Telecom network in view of its confluence or otherwise in Open Fiber, continue to reappear.
For the French, the Italian summer remains hot.
