The controversial French businessman Bernard Tapie is back in headlines after buying out one of the country’s most important regional newspapers this week, a move that has raised suspicion over the man’s new business and political agenda., reports France 24.
On Thursday, France learned that the 69-year-old Tapie, a onetime cabinet minister who amassed a massive fortune in the 1980s only to lose it all, was part of a business deal worth 50 million euros that will give him control over some of southern France’s most widely circulated newspapers, notably the Marseille daily La Provence.
Tapie is famous in France for his past high-profile and high-risk investments, his political ambitions, and for questionable practices that landed him behind bars. However, he has never shown interest in the print news industry before, forcing many to speculate as to whether his new acquisition is not a stepping stone into Marseille’s mayoral office.
While he once harboured ambitions to become a professional race car driver and a singer, Tapie first gained recognition for taking over and saving failing French companies. His strategy included renegotiating debts and diversifying business, but especially and more controversially, slashing jobs.
He amassed one of the largest French fortunes in the 1980s, buying in 1986 Olympique de Marseille (OM), one France’s oldest and best football clubs, and taking over the sporting goods company Adidas by the end of the decade.
Lured into politics, he pulled off a surprise election victory in 1989 to become a French MP representing Marseille. Three years later he agreed to sell off holdings, including the Adidas brand, in order to accept a job as a cabinet minister in the Socialist government of president François Mitterrand. But his ministry career would be short-lived, ending in 1993 with an election defeat for the left.
Read more of this report from France 24.
See also Mediapart's latest story on Tapie.