Silvio Berlusconi dies aged 86

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian media magnate who created Mediaset and served as the country’s prime minister in four governments, has died aged 86.

Italy’s Corriere della Sera was first to report the death of the mogul who dominated Italian media and politics for much of the last three decades. The paper said he died in San Raffaele hospital on Friday after being hospitalised for 45 days.

Berlusconi’s business interests evolved from construction to embrace media in the 1970s when he created a cable TV station to serve one of the apartment complexes he built in Milan.

The channel evolved into national commercial channel Canale 5, and then into Mediaset, whose status as a national broadcaster de facto existed in limbo de jure until its status was regularised by prime minister and Berlusconi ally Bettino Craxi and subsequent administrations in the 1980s.

Mediaset became Italy’s dominant media force and also served to promote Berlusconi’s political rise.

He created his own political party, Forza Italia, in 1993 and first became prime minister in coalition with right-wing allies a year later, although the government collapsed after nine months.

In total, Berlusconi served as prime minister for nine years in four separate administrations, making him the longest serving Italian post-war prime minister, as well as one of the most controversial. His front-line political career came to an end with his conviction for tax fraud.

His death leaves a question mark over succession and the future of MediaForEurope (MFE), the media empire that comprises Mediaset in Italy, Mediaset España, its recently consolidated Spanish sister broadcaster, and a stake in Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1.

MFE is currently led by Berlusconi’s son Pier Silvio Berlusconi. However, his daughter Marina serves as chairman of family holding company Fininvest, as well as chair of the Berlusconi empire’s publishing arm Mondadori.

Both Pier Silvio and Marina hold 8% shares in Fininvest.

Some 21.42% of Fininvest is controlled by investment outfit H14, which is owned in equal shares by three children from Berlusconi’s second marriage: Luigi, Barbara and Eleonora. Luigi sits on the board of Fininvest and Banca Mediolanum and chairs H14. Barbara sits on the board of Fininvest and is managing director of H14.