L 125/54 Official Journal of the European Union 28.4.2004 COMMISSION DECISION of 7 January 2004 declaring a concentration compatible with the common market and the functioning of the EEA Agreement (Case No COMP/M.2978 — Lagardére/Natexis/VUP) () (notified under document number C(2003) 5277) (Only the French text is authentic) (Text with EEA relevance) (2004/422[EC) On 7 January 2004 the Commission adopted a Decision in a merger case under Council Regulation (EEC) No 4064/89 of 21 December 1989 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (%) and in particular Article 8(2) of that Regulation. A non-confidential version of the full Decision can be found in the authentic language of the case and in the working languages of the Commission on the website of the Directorate-General for Competition, at the following address: http://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/index_en.html. (1) The case concerns the acquisition by the French company Lagardére of control of certain assets of Vivendi Universal Publishing (VUP’), a French company controlled by Investima 10 (%) itself controlled by Natexis Banques Populaires; the transaction was notified to the Commission under Article 4 of the Merger Regulation, Regulation No 4064/89, on 14 April 2003. (2) The buyer, Lagardere, is a group doing business worldwide in three main areas: communications| media/publishing; the motor industry; and high technology. The notification is concerned solely with the communications, media and publishing side, where Lagardeére's main activities are grouped in its wholly owned subsidiary Hachette SA, which operates in publishing, the press, distribution, book retailing, and broadcasting and multimedia. (3) Investima 10 was formed to hold the shares in VUP, which is active in various sectors of creative publishing and in logistics and distribution. (4) In September 2002 Lagardere declared its interest in acquiring VUP's publishing assets in Europe and Latin America (except Brazil), which Vivendi Universal had just put up for sale (*). At the end of October, Vivendi Universal announced that it had accepted Lagardere's offer. (5) Lagardere's procedure for acquiring these assets had to meet one of the seller's desiderata, which was for a quick sale and quick payment. It was in order to meet this concern for speed that, at Lagardeére's request, Natexis Banques Populaires became involved in the process of acquiring the relevant VUP assets. (6) On 3 December 2002, the Natexis Banques Populaires Group concluded a firm sale contract with Lagardeére, enabling Lagardére (via Ecrinvest 4), subject to authorisation from the Commission, to acquire full ownership of the capital in Investima 10, the company owning VUP's assets. The acquisi- tion price was paid immediately by Lagardeére to Segex (a company owning all the shares constituting the capital in Ecrinvest 4) on the same date. ') Opinion of the Advisory Committee and final report of the Hearing Officer (O] C 102, 28.4.2004). 2 OJ L 395, 30.12.1989, p. 1; last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1310/97 (OJ L 180, 9.7.1997, p. 1). Since the date of the notification Investima 10 has become Editis SA. Vivendi Universal also divested itself of its publishing assets in the United States (Houghton Mifflin), acquired by a third party. () () () () 4