France’s Autorité de la concurrence (Competition Authority) has declared that the Canal Plus Group has not complied with a number of commitments – some deemed essential – made at the acquisition of rival pay-TV platform TPS in 2006. It has withdrawn the decision to authorise the transaction, obliging the parties to notify the operation again […]
Spain’s largest cable company ONO looks likely to acquire regional cable operator Telecable that operates in the Spanish regions of Asturias and Extremadura with around 160,000 subscribers. The operation, led by the French bank Societe General, is to be concluded before the end of this month. In the race to acquire the company there is […]
US pay-radio broadcaster Sirius-XM is in great shape and in formal guidance is predicting a double-digit revenue increase for 2012. CEO Mel Karmazin told a Bank of America conference last week that he’d like to use Sirius’s growing cash pile to help fund a suitable acquisition – but there wasn’t much about! Instead, his Board […]
Private equity fund Permira has cancelled its plans to sell All3Media. UBS had been appointed last March to find a buyer. All3Media is best known for producing hit shows such as Shameless and Skins. Permira had reportedly been looking for about £750 million to £800 million for All3Media, and while plenty of would-be buyers conducted […]
Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine TV production company has acquired the London-based social gaming startup, Bossa Studios, for an undisclosed fee. The acquisition is Shine Group’s first foray into the nascent social gaming market, and comes just months after News Corporation bought the TV firm for $673 million. Bossa Studios creates games for social networking sites including […]
Broadcom is to buy NetLogic for about $3.7 billion to expand its line-up of chips used in wireless network equipment to take advantage of growing demand for mobile data services. The $50-per-share deal, which represents a premium of 57 per cent over NetLogic’s Friday close of $31.91, sent NetLogic’s shares soaring 50 per cent. Broadcom […]
Vivendi pay TV arm Canal+ is to acquire Vincent Bollore’s free-to-air television business for up to €465 million. It says the purchase will help it defend its business against the arrival of Netflix, Apple and Google. Canal+ will intially take a 60 per cent stake in Bollore Group’s TV business, which owns the Direct 8 […]
Polish regulator UOKiK has cleared the acquisition of cable operator Aster by UPC Poland – with conditions. UPC will be instructed to sell parts of the Aster network in Warsaw and Krakow within 18 months. This covers networks in buildings where both operators already provide services. The regulator noted that in some areas the two […]
The race to buy the US online TV site Hulu has narrowed to three bidders according to reports: Amazon, Yahoo and Dish Network. Satellite TV operator DirecTV was ruled out of the auction for submitting too low a bid, the FT reported. Bids range from $1.5 billion to $2 billion. Hulu is being sold by […]
Gracenote has opened a European Development Centre in Munich following the acquisition of German-based TVTV Services, an Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) and Smart TV service provider in Europe. Formerly a branch of Sony UK, TVTV has been integrated into Gracenote to enable Gracenote to expand its portfolio of products and technology to Smart TV manufacturers, […]