Media Holdings Update

VIVENDI HOLDS ON TO ITS 20% STAKE IN NBC
[SOURCE: Bloomberg News]
For those of you scoring "Who Owns the Media" at home, Vivendi decided to keep its 20% stake in entertainment company NBC Universal and agreed with partner General Electric Co. to extend their shareholder agreement. The companies formed NBC Universal in 2004, when Vivendi sold its U.S. cable channels, Universal Pictures film studio and theme parks to General Electric's NBC unit. General Electric holds the remaining 80% of the venture, which also owns the NBC broadcast network, the third-ranked U.S. channel.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-nbc15dec15,1,3533453....
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2 EQUITY FIRMS PAYING $7.6 BILLION FOR LARGEST GERMAN TV BROADCASTER
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kevin O'Brien]
Two private equity firms, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Permira, agreed on Thursday to buy the largest private German TV broadcaster, ProSiebenSat.1, in a transaction worth about $7.6 billion. The purchase of ProSiebenSat.1, which operates five TV channels that draw 42 percent of all German TV advertising revenue, will bolster plans by Kohlberg Kravis and Permira to create a competitor to RTL, the Luxembourg-based broadcaster that is the largest in Europe in terms of sales. The new owners are likely to combine the ProSiebenSat.1, which is based in Unterföhring, a suburb of Munich, with their SBS Broadcasting, a group of 16 radio stations, 19 free TV channels and 20 pay TV channels, with a combined 100 million viewers in nine countries.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/15/business/worldbusiness/15tele.html
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