Digital sports rights company Perform has acquired real-time data firm RunningBall in a deal worth up to €120 million. The deal is the largest takeover yet by Perform, whose largest shareholder is US billionaire Leonard Blavatnik. Under the terms of the deal Perform, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2011, will pay a minimum of €101 million and [...]
Japan’s largest mobile telco is about to buy in to mobile media content in Europe by buying Buongiorno, the Italian producer of games, music and other services. NTT DoCoMo has bid €224 million. DoCoMo says it wants to grow outside of Asia by adding Buongiorno’s two billion customers in 57 countries. It already invested in Vietnamese mobile content outfit VMG and [...]
On May 1st, speaking at the Sirius-XM results, CEO Mel Karmazin suggested that main shareholder Liberty Media’s 40 per cent holding in Sirius-XM “wasn’t the new 50!” It was light-hearted throw-away comment on Liberty’s attempt to persuade the FCC to permit Sirius-XM’s valuable transmission licences to be re-allocated to Liberty. Perhaps Karmazin spoke just a day or so too soon, [...]
News Corp is to buy a 19.9 per cent stake in Bona Film Group. The agreement will help the Chinese film producer and distributor reach a more global audience with its films. Meanwhile, News Corp gets a chance to play a bigger role in a fast-growing market. Bona said News Corp is acquiring the stake directly from its founder, chairman [...]
NBCUniversal International has confirmed the acquisition of a controlling 51 per cent stake in international children’s channel, KidsCo, in partnership with existing shareholder and content supplier Corus Entertainment, who also increased its equity in the channel to 43.8 per cent. The announcement was made by Kevin MacLellan, President, International Television, NBCUniversal and Doug Murphy, President, Corus Television. Cookie Jar will [...]
SeaChange has completed the sale of its broadcast server and storage business. The sale to the new independent company XOR Media has closed following customary regulatory approvals. SeaChange CEO Raghu Rau commented: “This sale is an important part of our strategy to transform SeaChange into a pure play software company. Now that the transaction is complete, we can focus on [...]
Despite the furore surrounding whether BSkyB is a ‘fit and proper’ holder of a broadcasting licence following the phone hacking scandal, News Corp COO Chase Carey has scotched suggestions that the company is considering selling its 39 per cent in the broadcaster. “We have no expectation to sell the Sky stake at this time,” Carey said in an analyst briefing [...]
Telecom Italia has officially confirmed the sale of Telecom Italia Media, its media and broadcasting unit in which it owns a 77 per cent stake. The Board of Directors has decided to begin the process for the disposal of the activities in the media sector, in view of the refocusing of the Group on the core activities, as outlined in [...]
Zon Multimedia shares rose as much as 1.3 per cent after shareholder Isabel dos Santos increased her stake in Portugal’s biggest cable-television provider to 14.9 per cent. Dos Santos agreed to buy 4.9 per cent of the Zon through her Amsterdam-based holding company Jadeium, adding to the 10 per cent stake she already controlled through Kento Holding Ltd., Lisbon-based Zon [...]
Widespread reports out of Italy over the weekend suggest that commercial TV channel La7 is to be sold by owner Telecom Italia Media. Two weeks ago, Telecom Italia Media’s shareholders approved last year’s report, which despite recording a decline in overall annual revenue (€238.2 million, down by €20.3 million), it recognised a rise in ad-revenues at La7, up 32.1 per [...]
