is a large
French group of
Companies , diversified in
Publishing and
Aerospace , formerly known as
Matra .
Lagardère was incorporated on
September 24 , 1980 as a holding company.
Matra was privatized in 1988, with Lagardère holding 6% of the stock and by 1992 25%. In December 1992 the group was radically restructured:
- Lagardère absorbed Arjil , its parent company.
- Lagardère received shares in Matra (from Floirat , Daimler Benz and GEC ) and the holding group of Hachette, Marlis (from Floirat, Crédit Lyonnais and Aberly).
- Matra and Hachette were merged to form Matra Hachette, of which Lagardère held 37.6%.
- Lagardère legal status was changed from a corporation (société anonyme or SA) to a limited partnership with shares (société en commandite par actions or SCA).
Following a share swap in 1994 Lagardère held 93.3% of Matra Hachette’s stock. In 1996 Matra Hachette was formally merged into Lagardère.
In 1999 the defence arm, Matra Hautes Technologies, merged with
Aérospatiale to form
Aérospatiale-Matra . On July 10, 2000 Aérospatiale-Matra became part of
EADS .
On
23 October 2002 Lagardère announced the purchase of
Vivendi Universal Publishing , with the exception of
Houghton Mifflin .
