UNTERFÖHRING (dpa-AFX) - The Italian ProSiebenSat.1 major shareholder MediaForEurope (MFE) has narrowly failed in its attempt to split up the Group due to resistance from the other shareholders. Just under 71 percent of the share capital represented at the Annual General Meeting voted in favor of a corresponding proposal to examine the project, as ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Andreas Wiele announced in Unterfohring on Tuesday. However, at least 75 percent of the valid votes cast would have been required for the Milan-based company to succeed.

In mid-March, the Italian TV group controlled by the family of the late former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took ProSiebenSat.1 by surprise with its proposal. MFE had called for the important entertainment television business to be separated from the "peripheral activities" of e-commerce and dating. At this year's Annual General Meeting, the shareholders were initially to decide whether such a split should be examined. If the green light is given, a vote on the actual separation of the businesses into two listed companies should be held next year.

MFE holds almost 30 percent of ProSiebenSat.1. In the past, the Milan-based company had repeatedly demanded that the Unterfohring-based company should sell its businesses such as the online perfumery Flaconi, the comparison portals Verivox and Billiger-Mietwagen.de and the dating site ParshipMeet in order to create "added value". Skeptics, on the other hand, suspected that the Italians wanted to acquire the lucrative TV division more quickly and cheaply without having to buy the remaining activities, which were uninteresting for them./ngu/he