Chronically loss-making Thomson Multimedia, which nearly fell into the hands of Korean Daewoo Electronics Co for a nominal one franc, is probably worth several billion francs according to Christian Perret, France’s industry minister, in a radio interview quoted by the Financial Times. Perret was commenting on last week’s announcement that Alcatel, Microsoft, NEC and DirecTV are each taking a 7.5% stake in the French government-owned company. Thomson Multimedia hopes to finalize its technology partnerships with the four companies this autumn, but the amount each is paying for its stake has not been revealed. The French government has recently pumped in 11bn francs to clear the company’s debts.
