UPDATE: Control of Le Monde Goes to Banker, Fashion & Porn Moguls

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The supervisory board of the 66-year-old French newspaper,  Le Monde, has turned to a troika of billionaires to rescue the daily, which is drowning in debt.

A consortium led by a subsidiary of France Telecom (see "TUOL" post 6/22/10) withdrew its bid Monday, leaving the field wide open for Matthieu Pigasse, 41; Xavier Niel, 43; and 80-year-old Pierre Berge to gain control of Le Monde, which employs about 280 journalists and boasts a circulation around 300,000.  Pigasse is a prominent figure with the investment bank, Lazard, Berge, the co-founder of fashion giant Yves-Saint-Laurent, and the colorful Niel founded Free, France's largest non-state owned telecommunications company, after initially amassing a fortune running sex chat services. Ooh, la la.

The winning bidders are not favorites of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, because of what he perceives to be their left-leaning political sentiments.