The European Commission is expressing doubts about the viability of Thomson SA and its Thomson Multimedia SA consumer electronics arm even with France’s proposal to inject some $1.9bn into the debt burdened group. It says in a notice published in the European Union’s Official Journal of March 20 that the French government had not sufficiently proved that the state group would be able to return to profitability by 1999, and it therefore, requested a restructuring plan for the firm and called on Paris to propose measures that will compensate for a distortion in competition in a sector already struggling with difficulties. According to Reuter, publication of the detailed probe gives Thomson’s rivals or interested governments to submit their views within a month.
