Vivendi’s Canal Plus has renewed its interest in buying a stake in Digital Plus, its Spanish counterpart, as it steps up its international expansion plans. Bertrand Méheut, Canal Plus chief executive, told the FT he was “open” to buying the Spanish broadcaster. But he stressed that there had been no talks since last year when […]
News Corp is expected to begin the formal bid process for BSkyB this week with a formal notification to the European Union of its intention to buy the 61 per cent of the company it doesn’t already own. This step will give British ministers about two weeks to decide whether to refer the bid to […]
The merger between Spain’s largest private TV channel Mediaset-controlled Telecinco and Cuatro is closer following the approval of the by the competition watchdog CNC with several conditions. Tele 5 will be barred from selling advertising from the partners’ two main channels (Tele 5 and Cuatro) in one package that makes up more than 22 per […]
Want Want Group, a company best known in China for its popular rice crackers, has agreed to acquire China Network Systems, Taiwan’s leading cable television company, in a deal that could be worth $2.4 billion. Chao Yu-pei of Want Want, said that the company had signed an agreement to buy private equity group MBK Partners’ […]
Shares of Sony Corp rose three per cent as traders cited media reports speculating it could be a potential acquisition target of Apple. After Apple’s earning announcement last week when it revealed a cash-pile of $51bn, target spotting has become a major pastime for analysts with Disney, Yahoo, Adobe, Netflix and even Facebook all said […]
SES Astra and Astrium, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS, have confirmed that Astrium will purchase a 75.1 per cent stake in SES Astra’s satellite equipment provider and ground system integrator ND SatCom, based in Friedrichshafen, Germany. With this agreement, SES Astra and Astrium will be reinforcing their long-term relationship, and will also explore the potential […]
STB specialist Pace has completed the acquisition of 2Wire. Broadband CPE manufacturer 2Wire has a number of clients in the tier-one telco market, particularly in the North American market, including AT&T. The company was previously owned by a consortium which includes Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Telmex and Oak Investment Partners. The deal is expected to make UK-based […]
Advanced Digital Broadcast Holdings (ADB), has bought Pirelli Broadband Solutions for E30 million – E22 million in cash and 400,000 ADB shares, about 7 per cent of the company which is quoted on the Swiss exchange. Pirelli’s disposal is part of its stated strategy of focusing on its core tyre business. ADB says acquiring Pirelli […]
The Spanish competition watchdog (CNC) has approved the merger between the commercial TV channels Tele 5, controlled by Mediaset and Prisa-owned Cuatro, but has blocked the entry of Tele5 and Telefonica into the Prisa-controlled pay DTH platform Digital Plus. The decision to limit the TV deal is on the grounds that Digital Plus, with Tele […]
Verivue has completed the acquisition of CoBlitz, a provider of Content Delivery Network (CDN) infrastructure solutions for wireline and wireless service providers. The addition of CoBlitz products further extends Verivue’s portfolio of content delivery solutions, providing operators with a broad range of choices for both managed video networks and OTT video services.