Groupe Canal+ bought the company in 2019, and M7 has been rebranding some of its services as Canal+ since 29 January 2024.
History
M7 Group previous logo
The private equity firm Astorg acquired a majority of the company in July 2014 for €350 million[2] via its Fund V from Providence and Airbridge Investments.[3] Providence is a Private Equity investment firm and Airbridge Investments is the holding company of executives Hans Wolfert and Cees Bohnenn.[4] In December 2017, the company became fully owned by Astorg. The exit of minority shareholders took place at the time of a €570 million debt refinancing which allowed to pay a dividend of €175 million to the former shareholders.[5]
On 30 July 2014, its subsidiary M7 Deutschland bought the German B2B satellite platform Kabelkiosk from Eutelsat.[6]
In 2016, M7 Group closed the Hungarian satellite platform Hello HD.
In December 2018, the company announced the purchase of Liberty Global's satellite operations located in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania for €180 million.[7] This sale was prcoesed after necessary permissions, in spring 2019.[8] Freesat platform acquired in the Czech Republic and Slovakia has been integrated into Skylink.
On 28 May 2019, it announced that Vivendi's Canal+ Group will take over M7 Group for 1.1 billion euros.[9] The sale was effectuated on 12 September 2019 after the European Commission gave its permission.[10]
M7 Group announced that Diveo, the German satellite platform which was launched in February 2018, will be closed on 30 November 2019. In July 2020, M7 Group S.A. merged with UPC DTH S.à.r.l. and changed its official name into Canal+ Luxembourg S.à.r.l. The M7 brand name remains in use with the "A Canal+ Group company" tagline.[citation needed]
Groupe Canal+ bought the company in 2019, although retains its own name.[11] M7 has been rebranding as Canal+ from 29 January 2024.[12][13]
