Vincent Bolloré (born 1 April 1952) is a French billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of the investment group

Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid sta ...

. As of September 2021, his net worth is estimated at US$9 billion.

Early life

Bolloré was born in Boulogne-Billancourt. He attended the

Lycée Janson-de-Sailly Lycée Janson de Sailly is a ''lycée'' located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. The ''lycéens'' of Janson are called ''les jansoniens'' and they usually refer to their high school as Janson, or JdS. It is the biggest academic inst ...

, before graduating with a business degree from Université Paris X Nanterre. Bolloré started his career as an investment bank trainee at

Edmond de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...

Career

Bolloré's personal investment career began when he took over at his family-controlled conglomerate

, which deals in maritime freight and African trade, and paper manufacturing (cigarette and

bible paper Bible paper, also known as scritta paper, is a thin grade of paper used for printing books which have many pages, such as a dictionary. Technically, Bible paper is a type of woodfree uncoated paper. This paper grade often contains cotton or lin ...

). Bolloré employs 33,000 people worldwide. He is a well-known

corporate raid In business, a corporate raid is the process of buying a large stake in a corporation and then using shareholder voting rights to require the company to undertake novel measures designed to increase the share value, generally in opposition to th ...

er in France who has succeeded in making money by taking large stakes in French listed companies, in particular the building and construction group Bouygues, where he left with a sizeable capital gain after a power struggle. He pulled a similar move with French video game company

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

, owning an approximate 27% stake in the company in 2016, before Ubisoft president

Yves Guillemot Yves Guillemot (born July 21, 1960) is a French businessperson and co-founder of Ubisoft with his brothers Claude, Michel, Gérard and Christian in March 1986. Early life Yves Guillemot grew up in a small village in Brittany. Guillemot's paren ...

maneuvered a deal to have a coalition of

Tencent Games Tencent Games () is the video game publishing division of Tencent Interactive Entertainment, itself a division of Tencent Holdings. It has five internal studio groups, including TiMi Studio Group. Tencent Games was founded in 2003 to focus on on ...

, among other companies, to buy out Bolloré's shares for about $2.45 billion. In late 2004, his investment group started building a stake in advertising group

Havas Havas SA is a French multinational advertising and public relations company, headquartered in Paris, France. It operates in more than 100 countries and is one of the largest advertising and communications groups in the world. Havas consists of ...

, becoming its largest single shareholder. He mounted a coup and replaced Alain de Pouzilhac as CEO in July 2005. In 2005, through his family company, he expanded his media interests by launching the

Direct 8 Direct 8 was a national French TV channel, owned by Vincent Bolloré. It was available through digital terrestrial television Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial televisi ...

television station. Towards the end of 2005, he began building a stake in independent British media planning and buying group,

Aegis The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...

. As of July 2006, his stake in Aegis stood at 29%. ', a free newspaper, was launched in June 2006. In January 2008, he manifested interest in becoming a shareholder of famed, but troubled, Italian car manufacturer

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian ...

. In 2014, as Vivendi president he decided to invest in the Italian telecom company Telecom Italia and in the Italian broadcaster, Mediaset, controlled by Berlusconi family’s holding company Fininvest. The Bolloré Group also has important positions in the economies of several former French colonies in Africa (in particular

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the nort ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, and Congo). On 24 April 2018, Bolloré was brought into custody for questioning concerning perceived links between discount rates for political consulting (through

) and port concessions in

Lomé Lomé is the capital and largest city of Togo. It has an urban population of 837,437

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

; and Conakry, Guinea. He was subsequently indicted for "corruption of foreign agents", "falsification of documents", and "complicity in breach of trust". If found guilty, he could face a maximum fine of €1 million and up to 10 years' imprisonment. As a result of

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

IPO at Euronext Amsterdam, Bolloré now held 18 percent of UMG shares.

Personal life

He has four children from his first union: Sébastien,

Yannick Yannick is a first name that originated in Brittany, France, where the combination of its two Breton language parts, '' Yann'' and ''-ick'', results in the meaning of ''Little John'' or ''Petit Jean'' in French. It is used as a first name mostly ...

, Cyrille, and Marie, and adopted one child during his current union. He is married to Anaïs Jeanneret, a French writer. He is ranked 499th-richest person in the world, according to ''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and m ...

'', with an estimated fortune of US$5.27 billion. He is a close personal friend of former

French President The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is ...

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

. It has been said that their friendship goes back over 20 years. Sarkozy has been criticized for accepting vacations from Bolloré, as was president

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...

with his father, Michel Bolloré. They have both stated that no conflict of interest exists.

Media engagement

Bolloré has been investing massively in media for several years. He is the main shareholder of the

Vivendi Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...

media group, which holds 18 percent of

in addition to numerous TV stations and newspapers. In 2022 he has also bought the largest private radio station in France,

Europe 1 Europe 1, formerly known as Europe n° 1, is a privately owned radio station created in 1955. Owned and operated by Lagardère Active, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, it is one of the leading radio broadcasting stations in France and its pr ...

in time for the 2022 French presidential election.

References

External links

Bolloré websiteVivendi French website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bollore, Vincent 1952 births Living people 21st-century French newspaper publishers (people) Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur French billionaires French chief executives Businesspeople from Paris French people of Breton descent Lycée Janson-de-Sailly alumni People from Boulogne-Billancourt University of Paris alumni