Hellman & Friedman are OSN suitors
August 18, 2014
By Chris Forrester
Last week a $3.2 billion bid for Dubai-based pay-TV operator OSN (the former Orbit Showtime Network) was rejected by majority shareholder KIPCO.
OSN reportedly has 941,000 subscribers, and according to a recent study from market researchers Ovum, could hit some 2.1 million within five years.
The bidders for OSN are Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F), a San Francisco-based private equity investor. H&F is already an investor in measurement company Nielsen, European classified website operator Scout 24, specialist software company Kronos, and many others. In the past H&F has been active in ProSiebenSat1 Media, Formula One Holdings, Axel Springer AG, and others.