From Colin Mann in London The UK's anti-trust watchdog, the Competition Commission has recommended that BSkyB should be forced to sell some of the 17.9 per cent stake in ITV it acquired in November 2006. The regulator has recommended to Business Secretary John Hutton that BSkyB should either sell all of its shares or cut […]
From David Del Valle in Madrid The Spanish media group Prisa, owner of newspaper El Pais, has launched a bid for the rest of Sogecable, Spain’s largest pay-TV group, that it does not already own, valuing the pay-TV operator, owner of Digital DTH platform Digital Plus and premium channel Canal Plus, at E3.8 billion. Prisa […]
Ericsson has acquired HyC Group, a leading Spanish company in TV consultancy and systems integration. The acquisition further strengthens Ericsson’s position in the services and multimedia domains as a systems integrator of IPTV solutions. The HyC acquisition follows Ericsson’s acquisition of Tandberg Television, provider of advanced video compression technologies, at the beginning of the year. […]
Philips Electronics has reached an agreement in principle to sell its Set-Top Boxes (STB) and Connectivity Solutions (CS) businesses to UK-based technology provider Pace Micro Technology. Philips will sell the businesses to Pace in exchange for 70 million Pace shares. Philips will retain 22.5 per cent of the enlarged share capital of Pace. The deal […]
Discovery Holding Company and Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership announced that they have signed a non-binding letter of intent pursuant to which DHC and Advance/Newhouse will combine their stakes in Discovery Communications. This will mean DHC will spin-off to its shareholders a wholly-owned subsidiary holding the networks and creative services businesses of Ascent Media Group. Immediately following […]
Omneon, provider of media server and active storage systems for the broadcast and digital content storage markets, has acquired Castify Networks, a provider of software-based solutions for managing the distribution of digital content over the Internet and private Intranets.Castify’s end-to-end software solutions enable enterprises and service providers to build scalable, easy-to-manage, and cost-efficient service delivery […]
The UK Competition Commission is expected to file its report on Sky with the government shortly and reports say it will recommend Sky's stake in ITV is cut to below 10 per cent. According to the FT Sky will be asked to reduce its stake to about 7 per cent, to bring it more into […]
BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, is reportedly trying to buy cable group Virgin Media’s share of UKTV, the TV channel business that the two organisations jointly own. Virgin Media’s investment in the 50/50 joint venture is valued on the company’s books at £370 million, (E536m) including a £150 million loan. The joint […]
Netgem has acquired the shares of institutional investors in Glowria, the leading French Internet DVD rental and a video on demand services operator. Glowria has up to now been financed by those investors; Seventure (Natixis Group), Crédit Agricole Private Equity and Mousse Partners. Through this acquisition, Netgem and Glowria will offer their customers and partners […]
Digital entertainment group YooMedia has conditionally agreed to acquire 95.2 per cent of the issued share capital of Fresh Interactive Technologies, a Spanish interactive television company, and has conditionally raised the sum of approximately £12.9 million (E18m) following a share consolidation and restructuring.