Italian regulator says Vivendi does have de facto control of TIM

Vivendi’s insistence that it’s only lightly flirting with Italian operator TIM has been refuted by the Italian securities regulator.
TIM is in fact under the ‘de facto’ control of the French conglomerate, insist Consob, more like a suffocating spouse than a benign suitor. Vivendi may well have been anticipating this when its CEO protested too much at the company’s recent earnings call. Vivendi only owns a quarter of the share capital of TIM but has managed to use th