Argentine Media Giant Plans Breakup

Argentina's largest media company offered to break itself up into six separate business units, the latest effort by Grupo Clarín to prevent the government from dismantling it under a media law the country's top court upheld last week.

In documents filed to the Supreme Court and the government's media regulator, Clarín said it would voluntarily divide its profitable cable-television business into three companies, two of which would contain TV and radio stations. The other three companies would offer a mix of broadcast, cable-TV and radio stations around the country. Clarín said breaking the company up was the "least desirable" outcome, but said it was being "steamrolled under the threat of confiscation" by the government. Clarín's divestment plan is the beginning of a lengthy legal battle. While the Supreme Court ruled that the media law was constitutional, it also called on the government to enforce the law fairly. The court, said Henoch Aguiar, a former communications secretary, "closed one door and opened five."