Altice France announced that it has entered into an exclusivity agreement with the CMA CGM Group and Merit France, family holding, to sell 100% of Altice Media for a total cash consideration of €1.55 billion.
Altice Media is France’s #1 news group with unique capabilities across television, radio and digital. With its popular and emblematic brands BFM and RMC, Altice Media combines the very high quality of national, international, business, regional and sports news and a wealth of documentary and entertainment.
Through its broad spectrum of media outlets, Altice Media consistently provides audiences with comprehensive and engaging content, reinforcing its position as a key player in the global media landscape.
Since the inception of BFM TV under the leadership of Alain Weill and its strengthening under the ownership of Altice since 2015, Altice Media with BFM, RMC and all its brands has become a very strong and innovative media player, critical for France, its citizens, its regions, with a constant requirement of ethics and pluralism and useful to elevate public debate.
Over the last 10 years of ownership by Altice, Altice Media has grown incredibly:
- National TV channels: from 3 to 5
- Local TV channels: from 0 to 10
from 3.5% to 7%
- French documentary per year: from 2,000 hours to 6,000 hours
- Radio stations: from 2 to 3
- Employees: from 800 to 1,700
- Journalists: from 350 to 900
- Digital applications: from 3 to 20
- Digital audiences per month: from 40 million views to 170 million views
- Podcasts produced per year: from 150 to 35,000
- Annual revenues: from €195 million to €362 million
- Annual EBITDA: from €40 million to €112 million
Patrick Drahi, founder and owner of Altice, warmly thanks the managers and the employees, especially reporters, technical and production teams, and commercials for the incredible achievement of Altice Media.
Patrick Drahi is very confident in Rodolphe Saadé with whom he has a close and friendly relationship for several years, his family, CMA CGM and Merit France, to continue to invest and to develop Altice Media to allow BFM and RMC, and their teams, to pursue their essential mission.
The transaction, which will be subject to customary conditions precedent and regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed during the Summer of 2024. Prior to this announcement, Altice France designated Altice Media as an unrestricted subsidiary under its financing documentation.
