Francois BOUCHON / Le Figaro
His CMA CGM group signs a purchase agreement with a view to acquiring Altice Media, owned by Patrick Drahi.
A dramatic turn of events this Friday morning in the audiovisual sector. The CMA CGM group, owned by Franco-Lebanese billionaire Rodolphe Saadé, has just announced that it has signed a promise to purchase with a view to acquiring 100% of the capital of Altice Media (BFMTV, BFM Business, BFM Régions, RMC Story and the radio RMC).
“This operation would allow the CMA CGM Group to constitute, in the long term, a benchmark Media Sector with information, sports and entertainment content and whose editorial project, bringing pluralism, independence and journalistic ethics , would be focused on the major issues of economic, societal and territorial transformation.”, writes the French shipowner in a press release. This acquisition would be carried out jointly by the CMA CGM Group and by Merit France, at 80% and 20% respectively, on the basis of an enterprise value of 1.55 billion euros.
In a letter sent this morning to the Altice France teams, that Le Figaro acquired, its CEO Arthur Dreyfuss praises the merits of Rodolphe Saadé: “We can be delighted that a new entrepreneur, at the head of a historic family group, anchored in our territory and endowed with a long-term industrial vision, is part of the continuity of Patrick Drahi and Altice. This is excellent news for preserving our very particular DNA, made of audacity and pragmatism which has characterized us from the beginning”he writes.
Discussions since spring 2023
According to our information, Rodolphe Saadé had expressed his interest as early as spring 2023 to Patrick Drahi, CEO of the Altice group (, to buy its media division. Last summer, the management of Altice Media then expected 2 billion euros for enter into negotiations. Weakened on the financial markets, cornered by a debt of 60 billion euros and shaken by a corruption scandal, Patrick Drahi finally chose to shed his jewels in the media. And the very popular BFMTV, which remains the leading continuous news channel in France, ahead of CNews (Canal+ group), LCI (TF1 group) and Franceinfo. The sale, which will have to obtain the necessary regulatory authorizations, should be finalized during the summer of 2024.
For his part, Rodolphe Saadé has been building an empire in the media for two years through his subsidiary CMA CGM Médias (Provence, The galleryLa Tribune Dimanche, stakes in the capital of the M6 group and the digital media Brut.).