Walt Disney has agreed to buy filmmaker George Lucas’s Lucasfilm production company and the “Star Wars” movie franchise for $4.05 billion (€3.12bn) in cash and stock – a deal that adds one of the most beloved franchises in entertainment history to Disney’s line-up. Disney said there would be a new series of “Star Wars” feature […]
Struggling youth-focused cable TV broadcaster Current TV is reportedly up for sale. Current TV had already trimmed back its international operation in order to cut costs. BSkyB cut its funding, for example, back in January 2012 and the channel closed its European operation in March. The channel launched in the US in August 2005, and […]
Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) and Space Systems Loral (SS/L) have received anti-trust approval to proceed with the take-over of SS/Loral by MDA. The Department of Justice decision helped Loral’s share price rise 2.58 per cent in after-hours trading on Friday evening to $75.15. The $875 million take-over by MDA of SS/L was announced […]
Ratos is selling Stofa to the Danish energy and telecom group SE (Syd Energi) for DKK 1,900 million (€254m). The sale generates a net gain the private equity Ratos of approximately SEK 850 million. The sale is subject to approval from the relevant regulatory authorities and SE’s Board of Representatives. Stofa is a Danish operator […]
Scripps Networks has been busy expanding and developing its overseas distribution this past year, and in the process buying UK-based Travel Channel International (for $107 million), all of which is helping drive the broadcaster and media owner to a very healthy $9.5 billion annual revenue. On the TV side of the business it has the […]
The Kudelski Group and ALi Corporation, an IC design company based in Taiwan, have entered into an agreement under which the ALi acquires Abilis Systems from Kudelski. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Abilis is a fabless semiconductor company providing RF modulators, secure media processors and broadcast-to-IP solutions. Kudelski and ALi have put in place a security […]
The Kudelski Group, an independent provider of media content protection and value-added service technology, and ALi Corporation, (Taiwan Stock Exchange:3041), a professional IC design company with innovative technologies and comprehensive solutions for the digital set-top box market based in Taiwan, today announced that they have entered into an agreement under which the ALi Corporation acquires […]
As slip-ups go, hitting the button that let out Google’s quarterlies early was expensive – try 9 per cent of the value of one of the world’s most valuable companies. It was a printer’s mistake – how ironic an old world communicator should undermine such a cutting edge outfit. The market was spooked by the […]
Private equity firm OpCapita, which bought UK retailer Comet less than a year ago for £2, is exploring bids to buy the business. BBC reports that it is examining a number of bids from interested parties. Comet operates 240 stores in the UK. Sir John Clare, formerly chief executive of rival Dixons Retail, joined the […]
Vivendi is in talks about a merger of its SFR telecoms business with Numericable, a deal that would combine France’s second-biggest mobile phone operator with one of the country’s leading cable groups. Negotiations between Numericable’s owners and Vivendi, have been taking place in recent weeks according to reports. The proposal being discussed would see both […]