Amazon is to bow out of DVD rentals and throw its weight behind Lovefilm, the leading European specialist,. Amazon is to transfer its subscribers and inject some cash to Lovefilm in exchange for a stake believed to be about 30 per cent of the company and valued at about £60 million (E80m) to £70 million. […]
Serafina Holdings, an entity formed by BC Partners, Silver Lake and other equity investors, has closed its acquisition of commercial satellite operator Intelsat. Through the transaction, the equity of Intelsat Holdings was valued at about $5 billion. As part of the deal, funds associated with Apax Partners Worldwide, Apollo Management, Madison Dearborn Partners and Permira […]
Babelgum, has appointed BT Vision’s director of business affairs Mark Cranwell its first director of content strategy. Cranwell will report to Simon Kenny, head of content strategy and advertising at Babelgum. In his previous role, Cranwell was responsible for negotiating broadband video-on-demand deals.
David Elstein, an independent director of Virgin Media, has resigned from the company’s Board. Elstein has been a Director of first ntl and then Virgin Media since January 2003, he is a former programme director of BSkyB and CEO of Channel 5.
Google has said it finds Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid to buy rival Yahoo “troubling” and wants regulators to scrutinise the proposed deal. Google said the tie-up could unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email and instant messaging services. It said Microsoft had previously sought “to establish proprietary monopolies”. “Microsoft’s hostile bid […]
Shares in UK commercial broadcaster ITV rose as much as 4.6 per cent in London trading after weekend media reports that private equity firms were consider a takeover bid. ITV shares climbed as much as 3.5 pence to 80 pence and traded at 79.3 pence as of 12:37pm, valuing the broadcaster at £3.08 billion pounds […]
BC Partners is set to announce the completion of its $16.5 billion purchase of Intelsat, the world's biggest satellite operator. The UK-based private equity firm has agreed to make concessions on the structure and terms of its $15 billion debt package to hold together its syndicate of main banks – Credit Suisse, Bank of America […]
Microsoft has launched a $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo in an attempt to challenge Google. Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, claimed that combining the two companies would create a stronger challenger to Google in the online advertising market. Hesaid the deal would create a “more efficient” company with total annual synergies of $1 billion, […]
Spanish cable operator ONO improved margins and costs in the last part of 2007, with fourth-quarter core earnings up 7.3 per cent to E162 million. Operating cash flow turned positive over the year thanks to more efficient management, ONO said, coming in at E106 million after an outflow of E32 million euros in 2006. Average […]
France's broadcasting regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), has issued a call for bids to broadcast a High Definition pay-TV service on one of the country's digital terrestrial multiplexes. The opportunity is available to all pay-TV services currently authorised on DTT who wish to replace their current Standard Definition broadcast with HD. Bids will […]