Satellite operator EchoStar, controlled by Charlie Ergen, is sitting on a cash pile of a huge $2.8 billion (€2.36bn), plus another $500 million of marketable securities, and is currently not doing anything with this ‘war chest’. Equity analysts at investment bank Jefferies have carried out a study to examine whether a hypothetical bid for Inmarsat […]
ARRIS International has completed its acquisition of the Ruckus Wireless and ICX Switch business from Broadcom. With this acquisition, ARRIS builds on a leadership position in networking and entertainment for service providers while expanding into new enterprise and vertical markets. ARRIS says the deal strategically positions it for a new phase of growth by leveraging the […]
The BBC is to merge BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide to form a single commercial organisation, to be called BBC Studios, suggesting that at a time of an increasingly competitive and global market for production and distribution, the new organisational structure will bring the BBC into line with the rest of the industry, integrating programme production, […]
AT&T and Time Warner have submitted a joint court filing arguing that their proposed $85.4 billion (€78.5bn) merger is “pro-competitive” and “pro-consumer”, seeking to refute claims by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) that the deal breaks antitrust law and would substantially lessen competition, resulting in higher prices and less innovation for millions of Americans. […]
Magazine company Meredith Corporation has announced that it is finally buying the Time Inc publishing group (it has tried twice before) in a “transformative” $1.8 billion (€1.5bn) deal. Meredith, which owns a portfolio including Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, and Shape, will fund the deal with the help of the right-wing, billionaire Koch brothers, […]
The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block AT&T/DirecTV’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner, suggesting that the $85.4 billion (€78.5bn) deal would substantially lessen competition, resulting in higher prices and less innovation for millions of Americans. According to the complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court […]
Some of India’s over-supplied DTH players have been talking merger and acquisition for well over a year. One major player, Bharti Airtel, which operates the Airtel Digital TV DTH platform and Airtel TV OTT service, says that it continues to consider its evaluate its options as far as the DTH service is concerned. The comments […]
Following the news that Disney had held talks regarding the potential acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s major television and movie production assets, reports have emerged that US media giant Comcast has approached Murdoch-family controlled Fox about a possible deal to obtain more shows to compete against disruptive online streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon. […]
Is 21st Century Fox in play? Absolutely. Who’s playing who is a more complicated question. Two weeks ago, the news was of discussions with Disney about selling TV assets. Now Comcast is named as a possible buyer in the Murdoch press – that’s not a leak, that’s a release. And, as remarked here before, rumours […]
TVSquared, a specialist in TV measurement and optimisation, has acquired wywy, a provider of real-time spot-detection technology, headquartered in Germany. The acquisition also marks the opening of TVSquared’s Munich office, providing ground support for Germany and other European clients. The acquisition combines TVSquared’s ADvantage TV attribution platform with wywy’s automated content recognition technology. ADvantage users […]