Telefonica and Vivendi are are joining forces to bid for Prisa's Digital Plus in an attempt to ease competition concerns, reports the Financial Times citing "people close to process". The Spanish telco and the French media conglomerate have held talks about a joint approach, but have yet to submit an offer.
Telefonica operates in the Spanish pay-TV market through its Imagenio IPTV service. A merger with market-leader Digital Plus is likely to raise antitrust concerns, with struggling IPTV firm Ono left as the only other pay-TV provider.
"Telef?a can do something more with Digital Plus than other potential buyers, provided they can get over antitrust problems," says Francois Godard from Enders Analysis.
Last week, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy says the French firm is currently not affected by the downturn and, in the long term, could consider acquiring a competitor.
Two weeks after the deadline set by Prisa, none of the interested parties has submitted a binding offer and expressions of interest have fallen below Prisa's asking price of more than EUR3bn (USD3.7bn). Meanwhile, interest from Italian media conglomerate Mediaset is believed to have cooled, while UK's BSkyB has withdrawn from the process. Prisa put Digital Plus up for sale in May in a bid to offset a multibillion euro debt resulting from the acquisition of Sogecable.
StrategyEye's related companies: Vivendi, Sogecable SA, Telefonica, BSkyB, Mediaset, Grupo Prisa
