It emerged last night that the board of Manchester United has decided to accept a takeover offer of £625 million from BSkyB. This represents a £50 million mark-up on Sky’s original offer (see Sky Expected To Bid £575m For Manchester United), and values the club’s shares at over 241p. Shares stood at 221p at 10:00am… Continue reading Manchester Utd Board Accepts £625m Offer From Sky
Scottish Media Group (SMG) has announced that it has made a £31 million (80p per share) takeover offer for video publishing group VCI. VCI’s publishing interests include videos for Thomas The Tank Engine and Manchester United.Shares in SMG, which owns Scottish Television, rose by 32p to 651p; VCI shares were up 29p to 78.5p.Chief executive… Continue reading SMG Makes £31m Offer For VCI Video Publisher
The ABC//electronic audit for the month of July recorded over four and a quarter million page impressions for the website www.loot.com, the site for the popular free-ads publication.This was an increase of 69% since the last audit from February to March, and the managing director of Loot, Graham Tolhurst, commented: “Loot is officially the UK… Continue reading Loot Website Receives Over 4m Page Impressions
Following this morning’s announcement that the Manchester United Board has accepted BSkyB’s £623.4 million takeover bid (see Manchester Utd Board Accepts £625m Offer From Sky), Sky and Man Utd had to defend their decision to agree on the takeover in the face of protest from fans and shareholders. Opening the press conference as he clearly… Continue reading Manchester United And Sky Claim A ‘Natural Synergy’
The Mirror Group have restored Colin Myler to his position as editor of the Sunday Mirror with immediate effect. Myler was editor of the title between October 1992 and April 1994, and has also held the positions of editor and managing director at The Mirror.Brendon Parsons has been appointed editor of special projects, and will… Continue reading Old Editor Returns To Sunday Mirror
United News and Media’s interim results released today for the six months to 30 June showed good progress and higher than expected profits. Generally, operating profit was up 2.7% to £197.6 million.Pre-tax profit showed an increase of 2.2%, rising to £177.9 million, and earnings per share were up 3.3% to £25.1 million.Chief executive Clive Hollick… Continue reading United News Financial Results Exceed Expectations
It is too early to set a date for the switch-off of analogue television according to the Independent Television Commission (ITC), which issued its response to the government’s Television: the Digital Future consultation today.The ITC says that, “if viewers’ expectations are to be met and social exclusion is to be avoided, digital television needs to… Continue reading Too Early For Analogue Switch-Off Date, Says ITC
The Radio Authority (RA) has awarded two new independent local radio (ILR) licences for the Greater Manchester area. The successful applicants are Tower FM and, conditionally, Oldham FM. The award to Oldham FM is subject to a minor change in its proposed equity holdings.In June this year the Authority decided to enhance the transparency of… Continue reading RA Awards Two New Manchester Licences
The first of a new series of papers called Advalue, to be published by IPA, concludes that advertising contributes to corporate profitability and business success.The independent three-month study used data supplied by PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategy) and came to the following conclusions: advertising impacts on customer value through its effect on perceived quality… Continue reading Advalue says ‘Advertising Really Does Work’
Terry Tavner has been appointed editor of Woman’s Own by IPC Magazines. The position will be effective from 14 September, and Tavner moves over the recently re-launched Eva.The vacancy arose after the sudden death of the title’s previous editor, Keith McNeill (see Newsline).The weekly title has enjoyed great success this year, winning the Comag Consumer… Continue reading New Editor At Woman’s Own
