M&A

Disney must offer £14 a share for Sky, says UK’s takeover body

The UK’s Takeover Panel has confirmed that Disney must offer at least £14 a share for Sky if its upcoming acquisition of Fox assets is completed. If Disney completes a deal to by 21st Century Fox’s TV and film assets, which includes a 39% stake in Sky, it will be forced to make an offer […]

Kutcher-backed Chicken Soup to acquire SVOD player

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, a ‘positive content’ company backed by Ashton Kutcher’s A Plus, has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Pivotshare, a global subscription-based video-on-demand service. Pivotshare offers channels online across a variety of genres from music to sports, religion and lifestyle. It currently holds near 28,000 hours of programming. The network […]

Tencent to acquire film & TV outfit New Classics Media

China Literature Limited, the publically listed e-books unit of Tencent holdings, is set to acquire film and TV studio New Classics Media (NCM) for US$2.25bn. NCM is a renowned TV series, web series and film producer in China with a track record of creating popular content from The First Half of My Life (pictured) to Yu […]

AT&T acquires full stake in Otter Media

AT&T has acquired The Chernin Group’s controlling interest in Otter Media, the joint venture between the two companies. Otter Media, a subscription, advertising and content company, comprises of wholly-owned subsidiary Ellation, an online subscription video service provider, with offerings under the Crunchyroll and VRV brands, as well as a full-service digital media company, Fullscreen. Otter […]

Fox posts offer note for Sky deal

Twenty-First Century Fox has put in an offer document and form of acceptance for its £14 a share offer to buy Sky. The move sees Fox temporarily table plans to make a higher bid than Comcast’s £14.75 offer. The deadline for Fox to set out a revised offer document is September 22. Sky has acknowledged […]

DOJ slams judge’s approval of AT&T/Warner merger

The US District Court’s greenlighting of AT&T’s merger with Time Warner merger was only possible because of Judge Richard Leon’s “erroneously ignoring fundamental principles of economics and common sense”, according to the Department of Justice. Outlining the reasons for its appeal against the judge’s rejection of its case that the merger should not go through […]

AMC agrees $274m deal to buy RLJ Entertainment

AMC Networks has entered a definitive agreement to acquire RLJ Entertainment for an aggregate value of US$274 million. RLJ Entertainment is the owner of two SVOD services, Acorn TV, the British content streamer that serves US audiences, and UMC (Urban Movie Channel). Together the services have over 800,00 subscribers. RLJ also has a controlling interest […]

Disney/Fox shareholders approve $71.3bn merger

21st Century Fox and Disney shareholders have approved the acquisition of Fox’s entertainment business by Disney. Fox shareholders approved the company’s merger agreement with Disney and the agreement for the distribution of shares related to the spin-off of the ‘new Fox’ company headed by Lachlan Murdoch that will house Fox News and Fox Business Network as […]

Viacom confirms Awesomeness TV acquisition

Viacom has confirmed that it will acquire Awesomeness TV, a digital-first destination for original programming aimed at a Gen Z audience (those born in the mid-90s onwards). While Viacom did not state how much it would pay for the acquisition, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that it is likely to be US$25 million plus debt. […]

Nine and Fairfax announce $4bn merger

Commercial TV network Nine Entertainment this morning confirmed it had agreed a merger deal with one of Australia’s most venerable legacy media companies, Fairfax Media. The deal will see Nine take a controlling 51.1% stake in Fairfax, and will create a company with a combined market value of $4.2bn. The company will take the Nine […]