MILAN (Reuters) - Mediaset (MI:MS) shares jumped 20 percent on Tuesday after French media group Vivendi (PA:VIV) said it owned a 3 percent stake in the Italian broadcaster and planned to raise that to as much as 20 percent, fuelling expectations of a takeover bid.
Vivendi, led by chairman and biggest shareholder Vincent Bollore, said late on Monday that buying into Mediaset was part of its strategy to expand into southern Europe and transform the French company into an integrated European media powerhouse.
But Fininvest, the investment holding of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi that controls Mediaset through a 34.7 percent stake, accused the French company of trying to depress the company's share price in recent months through an ongoing dispute between the two companies to then launch a "hostile takeover" at a discounted price.
The two companies have been at loggerheads since July when Vivendi backed out of an agreement that would have given it control of Mediaset's pay-TV division Premium and handed the two firms 3.5 percent stakes in each other.