Three bidders have been confirmed as potential buyers of the insolvent German media group KirchMedia but Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation will take no further part in the auction process, according to reports in the German press.
A consortium including the investment bank Lehman Brothers, German retailer Rewe and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed is believed to have bid E2.5 billion and been added to the shortlist drawn up by administrators for Kirch. However the news magazine
Der Spiegel claims that News Corp has withdrawn from the consortium together with the Italian broadcaster, Mediaset.
Mediaset is owned by the family of the country’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and it was felt that any further involvement would be too politically sensitive.
Consortia headed by the French broadcasting company TF1 and the German Commerzbank are understood to have been shortlisted (see Two Bidders To Compete For Kirch Assets) and will be allowed full access to KirchMedia’s accounts before the bidding process enters its climax.
