Péladeau buys out brother, tightens grip on Quebecor empire

Pierre Karl Péladeau now has full control of the entire Quebecor multimedia empire after buying out his brother Erik, according to a story carried by Canadian Press.

In a press release on Thursday, Péladeau said that in accordance with the will of his late father Pierre Péladeau, he had bought "for a nominal amount" (undisclosed) the interests of his brother in the firm Placements Péladeau (PPI), which controls Quebecor.

He now controls all of the 17.1 million class A and 19,800 B shares of Quebecor held by PPI and its subsidiary Holding Peladeau Inc. (HPI). In addition, he owns 3,200 class A multiple voting shares, 50,000 class B shares and 1.4 million options to purchase class B shares.

If Péladeau excercised all of his options within the next 60 days, said the story, he would control or own 86.2% of all class A multiple voting shares and 3.23% of class B shares.

In addition to being Quebec's largest magazine publisher, Quebecor owns the Sun Media chain of tabloid papers, the TVA television network, Videotron, a cable TV company and other online and media properties.