Industry

The European Commission has approved Banijay Group’s acquisition of Endemol Shine Group.

The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition “would not raise competition concerns given the presence of a sufficient number of alternative players with portfolios of similar content in the countries concerned.”

In October of last year, Banijay Group entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of the equity of Endemol Shine Group, creating a combined catalog of close to 100,000 hours of programming.

Post-closing, the combined group will be held by LDH (67.1 percent) and Vivendi (32.9 percent). Once the transaction closes, Banijay Group will own almost 200 production companies in 23 territories and the rights for close to 100,000 hours of content.

Announcing the deal last October, Marco Bassetti, CEO at Banijay, said: “Endemol Shine brings an incredible array of industry-leading talent, globally-renowned brands and high-quality creative content. Combining the resources of these two companies will instantly strengthen our position in the global market, and our capabilities across genres will further define us as a go-to provider of first-class IP worldwide. Welcoming the Endemol Shine brands and talents to our existing business will signal enhanced opportunities in the marketplace, and we are all excited by what the future holds for the combined entity.”