Eighteen years ago, the Bolloré Group branched out into the communication and media sector. Starting out with a shareholding in the advertising sole agent SFP, the Group founded the Direct 8 TV station – now C8 – then a hand-out newspaper Direct Matin, renamed CNews in 2017. It is the second most widely-read daily with 2.2 million readers. The Group then became the majority shareholder in Havas, one of the world’s leading advertising and communication groups which employs over 19,000 people worldwide. Further to the strengthening of its interest in October 2016, the Bolloré Group became the lead shareholder in Vivendi, holding over 27% of capital. Vivendi is the world No. 1 in music with Universal Music Group, and one of the foremost groups in television with the Canal+ group and video games with Gameloft. In July 2017, Vivendi signed a deal with the Bolloré Group to acquire a majority interest (around 60%) in the Havas Group.