Suryaa Now International Desk: Leonardo Maria Del... Leonardo Maria del Vecchio, the heir to the founder of EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of famous sunglasses brand Ray-Ban, has officially called off the takeover attempt to buy the popular Italian daily 'Il Fatto Quotidiano'. He clarified that this decision was taken as the company's board did not allow him to examine the business and financial information (due diligence) required to take over the magazine privately. He concluded that there is no intention to proceed with this bid at this time as there is no information available to fully assess the company's antecedents.
It is known that Leonardo Maria del Vecchio recently announced proposals to buy the shares of 'Societa Editoriale Il Fatto' (SEIF), the parent company of 'Il Fatto Quotidiano', which is very influential in Italian media circles. But he claimed that he made the bid to preserve such journalism, even though the magazine had been publishing articles strongly critical of him and his business practices for some time. However, the deal stalled after the magazine's main founder and editor-in-chief, Marco Travaglio, as well as the majority of shareholders, made it clear that they were not willing to sell their shares and did not agree to pre-purchase inspections. The development has been hotly debated in the Italian corporate and media circles.
Analysts believe that these efforts for ownership control between leading businessmen and media houses are likely to lead to more negotiations in the future. At the time of the announcement of termination of takeover bid, market sources kept a close watch on the movements of the shares of the respective companies.