The company has been Telecom Italia’s largest shareholder since June 2015, when it acquired a 8.24% stake from Telefonica for the sale of its Brazilian broadband group GVT and purchased 6.66% of additional shares. It increased its stake to 15.5% in September and earlier this month, to 19.9%.
"The group reiterates its intention to be a long term shareholder of the Italian telecoms group and, more generally, to develop Vivendi's activities in Southern Europe," said Vivendi.
Vivendi purchased an 80% stake in online video site Dailymotion from Orange for €217 million in June 2015 in a bid to focus more on media and content for the group.