Vodafone has emerged as a surprise frontrunner to acquire Tiscali after submitting a £1.1 billion (E1.37bn) bid for the group. A possible deal would give Vodafone a fixed-line broadband presence in the UK, and allow it to merge Tiscali’s Italian operation with its Tele 2 business there. BSkyB, BT, Swisscom-owned Fastweb, and Italian mobiles group […]

ROK Entertainment has acquired 100 per cent of the issued and to be issued share capital of Jalipo for total consideration of 600,000 ordinary shares. Jalipo Media Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jalipo Ltd and the only operating function therein, is a UK Registered IPTV company which offers live streaming of TV content over […]

Days after getting new owners TV Guide is back on the block. It would be the fourth change in control during the last decade for TV Guide. Last week, the Macrovision Solutions Corporation completed a $2.8 billion takeover of Gemstar-TV Guide, the magazine's publisher. The new owner has made clear that it is interested in […]

Cablevision is close to an agreement to buy the Sundance Channel, jointly owned by NBC Universal, CBS, and actor Robert Redford, in a cash and stock deal valued at close to $500 million. A purchase of Sundance will strengthen Cablevision’s position in the independent-film programming arena as the cable operator already owns another film channel, […]

Australia’s Macquarie Group and private equity house MBK Partners have completed a $2 billion joint acquisition of South Korea’s number 2 cable TV operator C&M. The deal made the unlisted company the first Korean cable TV operator owned by private equity funds. The country’s adoption of digital and broadband TV services raise hopes for further […]

The US Justice Department has approved the merger of satellite-radio companies Sirius and XM Satellite Radio leaving one more major regulatory hurdle — the Federal Communications Commission — before a deal that was given little chance of success can be completed. The companies proposed their merger in February 2007 as a way to bolster satellite […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s telco operator Abertis Telecom is strengthening its dominant position as the largest TV broadcasting carrier in the market following the acquisition of Madrid-based telco network Teledifusion Madrid. The operation has ruined DTT licencee’s plans to set up an independent broadcasting network to carry their signals out of the […]

The Kudelski Group announced the acquisition of EDSI, a leading provider of secure smartcard solutions for Pay TV and banking applications. EDSI is located in France. It was established in 1990 and currently employs about 30 people. EDSI has an R&D centre specialized in the development of high security software solutions for Digital TV, mobile […]

AOL, the Internet arm of Time Warner is set to pay $850 million to acquire social media network Bebo, which has total global membership of more than 40 million. Bebo is one of the largest social networks in UK, and is ranked number one in Ireland and New Zealand and number three in the US, […]

Sony Pictures Entertainment is making an offer of E156 million for Dutch entertainment company, 2waytraffic the company which creates, produces, licenses and distributes light entertainment content across television, mobile and digital platforms. The acquisition will enhance Sony Pictures' global capabilities in the light entertainment market, which includes game shows, reality programming, variety shows, quiz shows […]