George Soros has invested £50 million (€59m) into Hyperoptic, the British fibre broadband provider, to help expand the business across the UK. Hyperoptic builds high-speed broadband connections of up to 1gbps to residential developments. The group has secured the amount from investors led by Quantum Strategic Partners, a private investment vehicle managed by Soros Fund […]
Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network is raising $2.5 billion in fresh debt. The cash will be placed into a special escrow account ready to be used for Dish’s proposed purchase of US cellular giant Sprint Nextel. Ergen said that week that he would only make a firm financing commitment when it was clear that it was […]
Cable giant DEN Networks is to raise $160 million in a share sale. DEN has some 11 million homes in its cable system and is heavily involved in India’s digitisation process. The cash is being raised via Goldman Sachs’ Singapore office where Broad Street Investments and MBD Bridge Street 2013 Investments will take a total […]
A special board meeting of On Digital Media (ODM) in Johannesburg on April 30th voted in favour of the scheme put forward by StarTimes to rescue ODM’s TopTV pay-TV operator. Reportedly 99 per cent of shareholders approved the move. The decision also means that other rival bids, in one case by a consortium backed by […]
CBS Corporation has made a strategic minority investment in content distribution technology specialist Syncbak. It has not disclosed the level of investment. Using location-based authentication technology, Syncbak enables local television stations to stream their signal to in-market consumers. In doing so, Syncbak offers broadcast networks a seamless solution to replicate existing national, local and affiliate […]
Troubled outside-broadcasting giant Alfacam has been unable to win support from its bankers, and expects to file for bankruptcy. Alfacam’s board of directors had hoped that the company could continue operating under Belgium’s CEA III creditor protection (similar to Chapter 11). A statement on April 16th said: “The company then checked with the banks in […]
Belgian outside-broadcast specialist Alfacam says it will be forced to file for bankruptcy if its financing banks fail to support the business. The company’s shares continue to be suspended. Alfacam had been seeking a financial rescue from India’s Hinduja Group. Alfacam’s bankers on April 2 said they would not extend further credit to the company, […]
Global investment bank VTB Capital has acquired a minority stake in National Satellite Company, the largest Russian satellite TV operator operating under ‘Tricolor TV’ brand. The aim of VTB Capital as a global investment bank and a financial investor is to help Tricolor TV to increase value of its assets and get prepared for an […]
Charlie Ergen’s pay-TV operation Dish (officially the ‘Network’ part of its brand was dropped a year ago) says it wants to raise $2.3 billion in fresh debt that it looks to use for general corporate activity and “which may include wireless and spectrum-related transactions”. Only a month ago, Dish was talking about a similar move […]
Belgium-based TV and outside broadcast specialist Alfacam issued a formal notification April 3 saying that its banks on April 2 had decided “not to extend the standstill in debt repayments (granted until 31 March 2013). All the credit lines granted by them to Alfacam Group were cancelled at the same time.” The statement continued: “Due […]