French media giant Vivendi revealed that police raided its headquarters on 05 October as part of a probe into alleged stock market manipulation arising from its purchase of a stake in Italian commercial broadcaster Mediaset. “Regarding the complaint filed against Vivendi by the Berlusconi Group, which has resulted in a search of Vivendi’s offices, Vivendi’s management reaffirms that it acquired its stake in Mediaset totally legally and transparently and remains absolutely confident in the conclusion of this disagreement,” said the French company in a statement.
Although Mediaset is still controlled by the Fininvest holding of family of the Berlusconi family with a 39.5 percent stake, Vivendi became its second largest shareholder at the end of last year via a 28.8 percent holding. The French company’s aggressive stake building prompted Fininvest to lodge a criminal complaint in December on grounds of market manipulation, a complaint Vivendi described as “unfounded and unjust”.The police raids follow a formal request sent by Milan prosecutors to French authorities several months ago, with Reuters reporting that the offices of French bank Natixis in Paris were also searched as part of the investigation.
Mediaset is seeking damages of EUR 3 billion from Vivendi following the French company’s decision to pull out of a deal to acquire the Mediaset Premium pay-TV unit in April 2016.
