Corriere della Sera's journalists went on strike on Saturday to protect the independence of Italy's leading newspaper as corporate raider Stefano Ricucci continued to scoop up shares in its parent company. In a note published in Saturday's paper, Corriere's editorial committee slammed the "growing threat from outside" and its own "obtuse and bureaucratic" management which was not providing the labour and money the paper needed. Ricucci, a property developer who has become Italy's most infamous corporate raider over the past year, has been snapping up shares in RCS Mediagroup for weeks, pushing the stock price up by about a third.
He now has 13.5 percent of Corriere's owner and on Saturday said he wanted more if possible. One of Ricucci's close allies Danilo Coppola said he was also interested in buying into RCS.
Ricucci's allegiances and the motives for his assault on Italy's most influential newspaper are unclear. Some papers and politicians have worried he is linked to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose media empire dominates the country.
"Ricucci's stakebuilding, with absolutely no transparency whatsoever, is raising concern," Corriere's editorial committee wrote, saying the paper would not be published on Sunday.
Ricucci shrugged off the strike, saying: "I'm sorry but what can I do about it?" "Why do you do your job? Because you like it. Well, I like looking for things to invest in," he said on the sidelines of a meeting in Rome.
Analysts say RCS is now overvalued at 6.42 euros a share but Ricucci brushed off that suggestion and said there was still room for the stock to move higher if the company was well run. He said he had bought his shares at an average of 3.8 euros.
"What is happening on the market shows that Corriere, which already finds it hard enough to work as it should, could be put in danger despite the commitment to stability that RCS's shareholders pact made recently," the paper's reporters said.
The pact, which includes some of the biggest names in Italian finance and industry, controls 57 percent of RCS and said this week it was committed to protecting Corriere's autonomy and "the freedom and plurality of information".
The editorial committee also criticised Corriere's management for not providing the manpower and finances it needed to keep its position as Italy's top paper and said reporters could stage four more strikes to defend the editorial operation.