The European Commission yesterday granted French entertainment and telecommunication services conglomerate Vivendi approval for its acquisition of Vodafone’s 44 percent stake in SFR, the company announced this morning. The transaction, which is valued at 7.95 billion euros (roughly $11.5 billion), should be completed in the next few days.
Vivendi will then own 100 percent of SFR, a French mobile phone and Internet services company with over 20 million customers and more than 12,6 billion euros in revenue for 2010.
For your background: in 2010, Vivendi booked revenues of €28.9 billion (nearly $$42 billion) on adjusted net income of €2.7 billion (roughly $4 billion). That means SFR, of which Vivendi already owned 56 percent prior to the Vodafone deal, was accountable for approximately 43.6 percent of the conglomerate’s revenue last year.
This is notable when you consider Vivendi also owns video games powerhouse Activision Blizzard, Universal Music Group, Maroc Telecom Group and French Pay TV leader Canal+ Group.