Vodafone, Vivendi’s joint venture partner, agreed to pay €142.7 million for the loss-making Vizzavi service. The company said in a statement on Friday:
“Vizzavi has built up considerable experience in the provision of mobile content and information services. It has also established a unique portfolio of content partnerships. These assets will form an integral part of Vodafone's strategy in providing differentiated services to its customers and are of particular importance to the launch of Vodafone Live!, the new consumer service, later this year.”
Vizzavi France is the one part of the Vizzavi Group is not included in the deal. It is now wholly owned by Vivendi.
According to the Wall Street Journal, there has been no official statement from Bertlesmann AG, but it quotes “people familiar with the situation” as saying that bol.com is to be sold. The unnamed sources claim that preliminary talks have been held with Amazon.com. The sources also claim that Bertlesmann intends to sell its 35.2% stake in US book seller Barnes&Noble.com.
Amazon.com is the only bigger on-line book seller than bol.com. FT.com reports that bankers have valued bol.com at €2.1 billion. It made revenues of €90 million last year but posted losses of €30 million.