Vivendi, the parent company of Canal Plus and Universal Music Group, has acquired a 7.6% stake in Prisa, one of the Spanish-speaking world’s largest media groups, which owns El Pais newspaper, among other assets.
The deal is part of “Vivendi’s ongoing strategy to become a global leader in content, media and communications, while extending its access to the Spanish-speaking markets in Europe, Latin America and U.S Hispanics,” said Vivendi in a statement. Vivendi also said its strategy was aligned with that of Prisa as far as developing educational subscription services, as well as news and entertainment content.
Besides El Pais, Prisa also owns Santillana, Cadena SER, Radio Caracol, AS and Los 40 Principales, among others. Prisa is present in 24 countries.
Vivendi has been ramping up its position in the publishing field in the last couple of years with the acquisition of Editis, a prominent French-language publishing group, and recently bought a 26.7% stake in Lagardere, a publishing and retail group whose top assets include Hachette Livre, which ranks as the largest publishing company in France and the world’s third largest trade and educational publisher.
Just a few months ago, Vivendi entered exclusive negotiations with Gruner + Jahr/Bertelsmann to acquire 100% of Prisma Media, a leading publishing group in France.
Vivendi is already positioned in Spanish-language markets through Bambu Producciones, a thriving Spanish production company, and Gameloft, the video game studio based in Barcelona. Vivendi also manages ticketing services in Spain, while its IP and licensing business is also active in the Hispanic markets, said the company.