Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid state batteries, access control systems for buildings, palm oil and rubber in Asia and Africa, olive groves in the US and wine production in France.

The firm was founded in 1822, in Ergué-Gabéric, near Quimper, Brittany by Nicolas Le Marié (1797–1870), as a paper manufacturer named papeteries d'Odet.

In late 2004, the Bolloré group began taking an interest in the advertising sector, and started building a stake in Havas, becoming its single largest shareholder.

Lack of readers and advertising revenues made the group focus on its other free newspaper, "Direct Matin", launched in February 2007.

[7] The next month, in April 2015, Bolloré raised its stake in media company Vivendi from 10.2% to 12.01% at a total cost of €568 million.

This was done days before Vincent Bolloré himself "was charged by French police in a bribery case relating to operations in Africa.

"[13] There are plans to integrate payment for the bike and car hire schemes with the ticketing systems for traditional modes of public transport.

The former has a vehicle called the Cleanova, which employs the body of the Renault Kangoo van, while Bolloré's Bluecar has been developed with Italian styling house Pininfarina and is due to go on sale commercially in 2009.

The four-seat hatchback features a solid-state lithium-polymer battery, supercapacitors, and a roof- integrated solar panel to achieve a range of 153 miles.

In early 2022 RATP, the public traffic provider of Paris, suspended all 149 Bluebus 5SE after a series of busses catching fire.

[11] There are ongoing investigations into the role of drastically discounted Havas communications services accorded to Guinean candidate Alpha Condé and Togan president Faure Gnassingbé during their presidential campaigns in the awarding of key port concessions in Conakry, Guinea and Lomé, Togo to Bolloré SA.