Le Monde accepts offer from trio, snubbing Sarkozy

Le Monde, France’s struggling newspaper of record, accepted an offer from investors including Yves Saint Laurent Group partner Pierre Berge, snubbing President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had opposed the bid.

The group of investors, which also includes internet billionaire Xavier Niel and Lazard Ltd banker Matthieu Pigasse agreed to pay $135 million to take control of the 65-year-old Paris afternoon daily, helping it avert a capital crunch.

By accepting the offer, the newspaper’s staff rejected pressure from Sarkozy, who had told Le Monde Chief Executive Officer Eric Fottorino he didn’t want the daily taken over by the trio. Berge backed opposition Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal in the 2007 presidential election and is close to International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a possible 2012 candidate for the Socialists.

“Le Monde is an institution, and as a result it has an important political role,” said Laurent Dubois, a professor at Paris’ Political Studies Institute.

The daily, founded as the German army was being expelled from France in 1944 and supported by General Charles de Gaulle, is struggling to maintain revenue as advertising migrates to the internet. French newspapers, like their US counterparts, are cutting costs and seeking new revenue as readership shrinks.

The daily’s new investors will enter into three months of exclusive negotiations in exchange for a 10 million-euro fee.