Friday, July 31, 2015

Drahi's media Empire.Too big to win


In hardly 18 months, Patrick Drahi, the French-Israelian tycoon who built a powerful telecom business and started an international Israeli TV channel, has collected a large media group in France. He started with the daily Libération, then, he bought Express group, including the newsmagazine Express, and the successful monthly l'Etudiant. He announced on July 28, a partnership with another tycoon, Alain Weill owner of the all news BFMTV and the prosperous radio RMC. Thanks to this union the two ambitous managers will be present in print, television, radio and, of course, the Web.

Many observers wonder. Drahi has heavily borrowed to buy the cable network Numericable and the huge telecom operator, SFR. He has also acquired a huge cable company in the US. His debts amount to about 30 billions dollar while his net income is probably lower than 1 billion.

For the moment interst rates are very low and investment funds are desperately looking for ways to use their abundant liquidities. But is is it going to last? Nobody a bit serious can believe that.

In things turn to the worse, the hardly profitable media group won't be a very attractive prey to avid creditors. If something is obvious, it is that Drahi and his team have no strategy to improve an ailing industry. Express is downspiralling in sales and advertising, Libération has no future and BFMV has to fight in the very crowded field of all news channels and dynamic social networks that belong to American investors with deep pockets. for the moment the group executives buy out their best journalists and talk about new acquisitions.

So Is Mr Drahi to follow the sad exemple of Jean Marie Messier the powerful media mogul who fell in the trap and vanished from the scene? Lets wait until...2016.