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Media giant Lagardere dies
PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Jean-Luc Lagardere, head of the media group of the same name and a leading figure in the restructuring of Europe's defence industry, died on Friday, the Lagardere group said. Lagardere, 75, had been in intensive care, suffering from a viral infection he contracted after a hip operation on February 27. "Jean-Luc Lagardere died of a rare auto-immune illness," a spokesman for the group said, quoting Lagardere's doctors. He died at the Lariboisiere hospital in Paris at 10:56 p.m. (2156 GMT), the spokesman added. Lagardere was a major figure in the restructuring of Europe's defence industry, first overseeing the merger of his Matra Hautes Technologies with state-owned Aerospatiale and then the formation of Franco-German aerospace giant EADS. A handsome and charismatic engineer-turned-entrepreneur, Lagardere was on first name terms with President Jacques Chirac. Chirac immediately offered his condolences to Largardere's wife, Betty, and son, Arnaud. "A tireless entrepreneur, Jean-Luc Lagardere will leave the memory of a great captain of French industry, who looked to Europe and was open to the world," Chirac said in a statement. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin added: "Profoundly attached to our country, a man of panache and of his word, he was throughout his life a magnificent ambassador for French success." Lagardere began his career in defence electronics, before branching out into media. The Lagardere SCA group owns the world's biggest magazine publisher, Hachette Filipacchi Medias, has a 15 percent stake in EADS and just announced the closure of Matra Automobile, which assembled the Renault Avantime. The group, due to report 2002 results next Monday, had been run in Jean-Luc Lagardere's absence by his son, Arnaud, who runs its media division, and by Lagardere veteran Philippe Camus, also co-CEO of EADS. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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