This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Deals Labels & Publishers Retail
Universal owner buys into French retailer Fnac
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 12 April 2016
Universal Music owner Vivendi has taken a 15% stake in French entertainment retailer Fnac which, I can confirm, because I was in Paris recently and checked, is still a going concern. Who’d have thought it possible?
Vivendi, of course, is on something of an acquisition spree at the moment. Having sold most of its assets in the gaming and telecom sectors in recent years, it’s now using the pile of cash that generated to buy into, well, mainly gaming and telecoms companies.
However, it has also been buying into other entertainment-based businesses too, some obvious allies to Universal Music like See Tickets, others more interesting bedfellows, like Dailymotion and Radionomy, both accused by others in the record industry of unfairly exploiting music rights in one way or another.
Fnac is a less controversial sister company for Universal of course. Though Vivendi saying that its investment in the retail firm will also result in new live event partnerships, which suggests Universal and Fnac working more closely together, might possibly put a strain of the retailer’s relationships with other labels.
With stores in nine countries, Fnac successfully saw off a number of its competitors in various markets as specialist entertainment retailers really felt the crunch a few years back. Though entertainment retail remains a challenging sector, and an alliance with Vivendi’s other entertainment businesses could help it maintain its edge.
