Héloise Goy with Gauthier Delomez 9:29 a.m., March 4, 2022
While Xavier Niel wants to become the majority shareholder of the newspaper La Provence, the current CEO, Jean-Christophe Serfati, asked him to leave the premises on Wednesday.
The boss of Free had moved to meet employee representatives.
But the current CEO considered his visit "a violation" of a court order.
Relations are not at their best between Xavier Niel and Jean-Christophe Serfati, the CEO of
La Provence
.
The boss of Free was literally kicked out on Wednesday by the president of the regional daily, as he tries to become the majority shareholder.
Xavier Niel, who already owns 11% of the Marseille group, traveled to meet employee representatives but a few minutes after his arrival, Jean-Christophe Serfati kicked him out.
>> Find the media newspapers every morning at 9:10 a.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here
An altercation filmed by an employee
The sale of the
La Provence
group is played out between Xavier Niel and Rodolphe Saadé, the CEO of the shipping company CMA-CGM.
The boss of Free, also co-owner of the Le Monde group, accused Jean-Christophe Serfati of being an employee of CMA-CGM.
An altercation which was filmed by an employee of the newspaper.
According to information from Mediapart, Jean-Christophe Serfati had already opposed by email the arrival of Xavier Niel in his premises.
In this email, he recalled that the Marseilles court had considered that only the highest offer, in this case that of Rodolphe Saadé, should be presented to the employees.
He therefore considered Xavier Niel's visit to be "a violation of the court decision".
Since February 15, employees have a one-month consultation period, renewable once, to issue an advisory opinion.