The boss of Everything Everywhere, the parent group of UK mobile phone networks Orange and T-Mobile, is standing down for “personal reasons”. Tom Alexander, who will leave the chief executive role on 31 August, said he wished “to pursue other interests”. He will be replaced by Olaf Swantee, who is currently executive vice president at […]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed it is responding to calls from Congress and investigating whether the News of the World hacked into the mobile phones of the relatives of victims of 9/11. It is also being called on to look into the accusations News Corp executives bribed police in the UK as this […]
J&T Group, a Czech-Slovak private equity company, is planning to sell the satellite TV channel Skylink, Czech newspaper E15 has reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. Several telecommunication companies including T-Mobile Czech already filed bids to purchase the channel, which could be valued at more than 1 billion koruna ($58 million), the […]
Rupert and James Murdoch dramatically changed their minds and dropped their resistance to appearing before the Media Select Committee next Tuesday. The Committee had taken the very unusual step of issuing a Parliamentary Summons. Meanwhile, on Friday morning after two weeks of support from the Murdochs, Rebekah Brooks, CEO News International has resigned. She said: “I […]
24-hour Arabic (and English-language) news channel Al Jazeera is being legally restructured. A statement from its Doha headquarters says the operation is to have a comprehensive review, and its legal status will change. The news comes ahead of promised expansion into Turkish, Swahili and Balkan versions. The name change is subtle, as is the broadcasting […]
News Corp and Permira, the European private equity group, have hired banks to arrange a New York listing of digital pay-TV technology specialist NDS, which they jointly own, reports the FT. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been appointed to assist with the Initial Public Offering, following meetings in New York in recent […]
Leo Kirch the once all powerful mogul of German media, has died aged 84. At the height of his success in the 1990s, Kirch headed Germany’s second-largest media company, after Bertelsmann. Kirch created a $5 billion empire that included television channels, movie rights and a stake in Formula 1 car racing. But the group unravelled […]
TorrentFreak has blogged that the Hadopi organisation, after monitoring 18 million Internet users and having to take a break following a data leak (the metering was carried out by a contractor, Trident Media Guard) passed on 900,000 suspect IP addresses. 470,000 received first warnings, 20,000 second warnings and 10 have been passed to a Judge; […]
Bertrand Meheut, Chairman of Canal+ Group, and Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange, have announced the finalisation of their proposed strategic partnership, which calls for Canal+ Group’s acquisition of a 33.33 per cent minority interest in Orange Cinema Series. As a result, Orange will hold a 66.66 per cent share of Orange Cinema Series, […]
An investor consortium led by Criterion Capital Partners, together with financial funds and Hollywood investors, has bought SeeSaw.com, the UK on-demand TV service. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but former owner Arqiva is retaining a 25 per cent stake in the video platform. SeeSaw’s new chairman will be Michael Jackson, who previously served […]