La società di media italiana MFE sta pianificando di acquistare la seconda più grande azienda di media tedesca. Un gigante dei media europei è nella creazione?

I hope Pier Silvio will avenge his father trying to close der Spiegel with the company he wants to buy.

This needs to be blocked.

We don’t need more right-wing propaganda media, we should be working on taking them down, not allow them to enlarge their media empires.

There is already a huge problem with Italy, RAI and Mediaset capture almost 80% of the TV audience and are essentially Meloni government mouthpieces now.

MFE-MediaForEurope NV, the media group controlled by Italy’s Berlusconi family, raised its offer for ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE in a deal that would value the German entertainment company at about €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion) and help it create a pan-European broadcaster.

MFE hiked its offer for each ProSieben share to €4.48 in cash plus 1.3 MFE shares, the company said in a statement on Monday. That raises the stock portion of the deal from 0.4 MFE shares previously. Based on closing share prices on Friday, the offer values ProSieben at about €8.15 per share, a premium of 16%.

Italy’s biggest commercial broadcaster has been ProSieben’s largest shareholder since 2019. Chief Executive Officer Pier Silvio Berlusconi has said he wants to create a pan-European media group that can compete globally, challenging rising competition from large US-based streaming platforms like Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Berlusconi has also previously said he’s disappointed by ProSieben’s poor performance and urged the German broadcaster to slash its debt by selling non-core assets.

“We are not aiming for total control, but for a flexibility that allows us to give clear direction based on a common vision,” Berlusconi said in a statement. “We need a push to build what is still missing: a strong European group with roots local and adequate scale to compete globally.”

MFE will run the tender offer until 11 p.m. Frankfurt time on Aug. 13. ProSieben said in a separate statement that it welcomes the higher offer and that the board will release a statement on the new bid after it’s been formally amended and reviewed.

ProSieben shares jumped 11% to €7.79 at 10:29 a.m. in Frankfurt trading, giving it a market value of €1.81 billion. The shares have gained 57% this year. MFE shares fell 5.3% in Milan to €2.67 and have declined 11% this year.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:
MFE has only raised the equity part of its ProSieben (Pro7) bid (1.3 MFE A-shares from 0.4), meaning Pro7 shareholders need to weigh taking a stake in the joined entity and showing MFE’s leverage constraints. Pro7 also hasn’t yet recommended the new bid. The upped offer of €8.15 a share, based on MFE’s July 25 A-share price, implies a 16% premium to Pro7’s same-day close price (€7.04) and PPF’s competing partial all-cash offer (€7). It also equates to a healthy Ebit multiple of nearly 9x.

— Tom Ward, BI Industry Analyst

MFE operates in Italy and Spain while ProSieben’s programs broadcast in German-speaking Europe including Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

MFE is required to make a takeover offer for all of ProSieben after crossing the 30% ownership threshold. Based on MFE’s average share price in the three months through March, the company said the value of its proposal is €8.62 a share.

MFE isn’t the only shareholder interested in gaining tighter control over the German broadcaster. In May, PPF Group, led by Czech billionaire Renata Kellnerova, challenged MFE’s earlier bid with a partial offer for ProSieben to achieve a shareholding of as much as 29.99% for €7 per share.

Read More: Kellnerova-Backed PPF Outbids MFE for ProSieben Stake

That was above MFE’s March offer, which valued the Munich-based company at about €5.70 per share — a 13% discount to the share price at the time.

Not good news… but hilarious

The European media giant already exists

Its called RTL

Ownership of media companies should stay within the country