EVER since the fall from grace in July 2002 of Jean-Marie Messier, the hubristic former boss of French media conglomerate Vivendi, and Thomas Middelhoff, ousted soon after from Germany’s Bertelsmann, European media executives have kept a low profile—unpicking their predecessors’ visions and selling assets. But now there is a new contender for the role of Europe’s leading media tycoon: Mathias Döpfner, chief executive of Axel Springer, a big German publishing firm. He is poised to buy ProSiebenSat.1, a big television company, and wants to expand elsewhere in Europe. At a dinner in New York for Mr Döpfner last winter, he came across as “a man of extraordinary ambition who wants to rule the world,” says one of the guests, who muses that he might even match Mr Messier in the scale of his aims.
Axel Springer already owns 11.8% of ProSiebenSat.1, and Mr Döpfner has had talks with some of the private-equity investors who have controlled the company since August 2003 about lifting the stake to over 50%. Last week the likelihood of a deal in the near future increased as a clause that penalised the private-equity investors if they sold before August was lifted.
EVER since the fall from grace in July 2002 of Jean-Marie Messier, the hubristic former boss of French media conglomerate Vivendi, and Thomas Middelhoff, ousted soon after from Germany’s Bertelsmann, European media executives have kept a low profile—unpicking their predecessors’ visions and selling assets. But now there is a new contender for the role of Europe’s leading media tycoon: Mathias Döpfner, chief executive of Axel Springer, a big German publishing firm. He is poised to buy ProSiebenSat.1, a big television company, and wants to expand elsewhere in Europe. At a dinner in New York for Mr Döpfner last winter, he came across as “a man of extraordinary ambition who wants to rule the world,” says one of the guests, who muses that he might even match Mr Messier in the scale of his aims.
Axel Springer already owns 11.8% of ProSiebenSat.1, and Mr Döpfner has had talks with some of the private-equity investors who have controlled the company since August 2003 about lifting the stake to over 50%. Last week the likelihood of a deal in the near future increased as a clause that penalised the private-equity investors if they sold before August was lifted.
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