News Corp closes in on Premiere

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Rupert Murdoch is reported to be seeking majority control over German pay-TV operation Premiere. The story appeared in the weekend edition of Der Spiegel, which reported the usual “sources close to the company” saying that News Corp, using its European arm now being directly run by James Murdoch, was looking to boost its stake in Premiere well beyond the current 19.9% (which it increased from 14.58% in February). The necessary shares will possibly be purchased over the next few weeks on the stock market.

Der Spiegel reports that News Corp has entered into discussions with the EU perhaps as a preamble to officially notifying the EU of a majority stake. The Brussels-based competition authority has already signalled that the plan would be unproblematic, according to the report. There is another theory reported in that the News Corp strategy is simply to increase its stake to just 30%, thereby avoiding having to make a full take-over bid for the complete company.

This is not the first time a News Corp-related business has attempted to build a 22% stake in the German pay-TV business. Back in 2000-2002 BSkyB invested more than £1bn (now more than $2bn) in the then Premiere World when it was controlled by Leo Kirch. In 2002 BSkyB reported a £985m write off after the KIrch Group went into bankruptcy.


Source: Rapid TV News

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