ROME: Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest holding company said Tuesday it was suing media giant Vivendi for 570 million euros ($645 million) in damages over the French group's refusal to go through with a pay-tv deal.
The damages and interest are being claimed over losses Fininvest says it incurred as a result of Vivendi pulling out of a deal to buy 100 percent of Mediaset Premium, the pay-tv arm of Berlusconi's company Mediaset.
The suit follows similar legal action by Mediaset, which is seeking 50 million euros per month for non-application of the deal, which Vivendi backed out of last month, offering instead to take a 20 percent stake in Premium and a 15 percent stake in Mediaset via a bond convertible into equity.
The two companies had agreed in April to take a 3.5 percent cross shareholding and that Vivendi would acquire 100 percent of Premium with the aim of building it into a platform capable of rivalling Netflix.
Vivendi had second thoughts however after Premium recorded losses of 37.1 million euros in the second quarter after having posted a 63.7 million loss in the first.
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