UBM buys Allworld for almost $500m December 13, 2016 Event organiser UBM is to buy Asian exhibitions company Allworld for $485m (£382.55m) in cash, in an effort to strengthen its position in Asia and provide an entry into the Middle East. The deal will be debt-funded with a new bridge facility, and is expected to add to earnings in 2017, UBM said this morning. UBM [...]
How will Christmas dinner be different after Brexit? Here are 2016’s best alternative Christmas cracker jokes December 13, 2016 With Brexit, Donald Trump and mad political party leadership races dominating the nation’s attention, 2016 will be remembered as a year when people really got interested in politics. The final piece of proof? Brexit – surely no laughing matter – has won a joke competition, narrowly beating Sports Direct and BHS (proving that it has even [...]
Fox set to make formal cash bid for Sky this week amid scrutiny from investors and politicians December 12, 2016 Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is set to push ahead with a formal £10.75-per-share cash offer for Sky this week amid discontent from certain shareholders and politicians. The bid, to increase Fox’s shareholding in Sky from 39 per cent to 100 per cent, values the broadcaster at around £18.5bn. Sky shareholder Standard Life, which has a [...]
UK video startup Newsflare lands £2.4m December 12, 2016 Newsflare, a British media startup, has landed a multimillion pound cash injection from a young investment fund aimed at boosting the country's creative industries. The £2.4m fresh funding comes from Edge Investments' Creative Enterprise Fund and will help the three-year-old startup's expansion. Read more: The Memo proves investors still like media startups, with six-digit funding The Newsflare platform connects user [...]
Standard Life adds to pressure on Sky to demand more from Murdoch’s Fox December 12, 2016 Sky is coming under increasing pressure to push for a higher takeover bid from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. The two companies said at the end of last week that they had reached a deal in principle at £10.75 per share for Fox to acquire the 61 per cent of Sky it does not currently [...]
The Memo proves investors still like media startups, landing six-digit funding December 12, 2016 London-based media startup The Memo has landed a new round of funding for international expansion, proving investor appetite for media despite the well-documented struggles of established print media. The more than quarter of a million pounds in cash comes as the 18-month-old online tech publication turned a profit for the first time. Investors ploughing in £280,000 [...]
Banning junk food ads won’t stem the flow of fat kids December 12, 2016 For anyone who grew up in the nineties, advertising and children’s television were one and the same – for every ten minutes of Power Rangers, there would be five minutes of ads for Sunny D and awful American cereal. Invariably some garish, multicoloured cartoon character would jump out of the television, screaming demands like an Isis [...]
Sky seeks to calm shareholder concerns over Fox bid as board independence comes under fire December 11, 2016 Broadcasting giant Sky is vying to convince investors that 21st Century Fox’s £10.75 per share takeover bid is not undervaluing the company. Sky revealed last Friday it had reached an agreement with Fox that values the business at £18.5bn – but some shareholders criticised the approach over the weekend. One big name City shareholder told City [...]
Political opposition to Murdoch takeover of Sky mounts December 10, 2016 Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, former business secretary Vince Cable and influential campaign group Hacked Off have all voiced their opposition to the possibility of a 21st Century Fox takeover of Sky. Although media analysts appear to believe the deal is unlikely to be blocked by regulators, the news has attracted a number of objections in the [...]
21st Century Fox takeover of Sky unlikely to be blocked by regulators, say media analysts December 10, 2016 Media analysts do not believe regulators would block a takeover of Sky by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. Fox said last night it had reached an agreement in principle to acquire the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own for £10.75 per share. This would value Sky at £18.5bn. Murdoch’s News Corporation [...]