Vivendi and Mediaset set for court hearing

The battle between feuding former partners Vivendi and Mediaset is scheduled for its first court hearing on March 21, according to Reuters.

Citing an unnamed source, the news agency reported that Mediaset has yet to decide whether it will ask for a fast-track proceeding.

Reuters last week reported that Mediaset had complained to the French markets regulator the AMF to force it to change statements about the aborted deal between the pair that appeared in its first-half financial report.

Mediaset publicly contested Vivendi’s account of the events leading up to and immediately following its decision to pull out of the April 8 agreement between the pair that would have seen Vivendi take control of Mediaset’s pay TV arm, Mediaset Premium.

Vivendi claimed that had been based on assumptions on the part of Mediaset that Vivendi has subsequently subjected to due diligence by Deloitte after it raised a question about them.

According to vivendi, this “due diligence review”, which found that the figures provided before the agreement was signed were not realistic, had been agreed contractually between the pair, something that Mediaset vigorously denies.

Mediaset said that the contract between the pair was clear and did not include any clause that would allow Vivendi to unilaterally change the terms and conditions following subsequent due diligence. It denied that the pair were still involved in discussions when Vivendi pulled out of the agreement.