Italian Media Mogul De Benedetti Goes to War With His Sons
Founder of Italian Newspaper Empire Goes to War With His Sons
(Bloomberg) -- The 84 year-old founder of one of Italy’s most famous news publishing houses has gone to war with his sons for control of the business.
Carlo De Benedetti sprang out of retirement on Sunday with an offer to buy 30% of GEDI Gruppo Editoriale SpA, the owner of daily newspapers including la Repubblica and La Stampa.
De Benedetti established the company more than four decades ago and gave his controlling stake to his sons, Marco, Rodolfo and Eduardo, in 2012 after stepping back from the business. When circulation declined in recent years, De Benedetti took to berating his offspring for mismanaging the business and having little care for his creation.
His 38 million-euro ($42 million) unsolicited takeover offer is aimed at “relaunching the group with which I have been associated for most of my life,” De Benedetti said in a letter cited by news agency Ansa.
The sons flatly rejected the offer and Rodolfo De Benedetti said he was ”shocked” by his father’s move, according to Ansa.
Shares in the company leaped as much as 16% to 29.35 euro cents on Monday after losing around three quarters of their value in the past four years. De Benedetti made the offer of 25 cents per share via his holding company Romed SpA.
The publisher merged with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s media business in 2016. The tie-up failed to revive its fortunes, and last year the company rejected a takeover offer from another top Italian executive, former Telecom Italia SpA Chief Executive Officer Flavio Cattaneo, according to people familiar with the matter.
Rodolfo De Benedetti is chairman of CIR, the family holding company that owns almost 44% of GEDI, while Marco is chairman of GEDI and has been the co-head of Europe at U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group since 2015.
Carlo De Benedetti’s long career included a stint as CEO of Fiat in 1976. He left after less than four months after a disagreement over strategy with the carmaker’s controlling Agnelli family.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniele Lepido in Milan at dlepido1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebecca Penty at rpenty@bloomberg.net, Thomas Pfeiffer, Jennifer Ryan
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