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A management buyout has seen KirchSport fall under the control of a group led by ex-Adidas boss, Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Kirch announced last month that its sports division, which holds the TV rights to the 2006 football World Cup, would be sold separately from the rest of the company (see Kirch Move Prompts World Cup Rights… Continue reading Former Adidas Chief Buys World Cup Rights

The news that Carlton and Granada, the UK’s two largest independent broadcasters, are in the advanced stage of merger negotiations (see Carlton And Granada Enter Advanced Merger Talks) has received a mixed reception from advertisers and concerns abound that a single ITV could prove anti-competitive. ITV companies have been hit hard by the advertising downturn… Continue reading ITV Merger Must Clear Regulatory Hurdles

Publishers have shown considerable faith in the internet and are beginning to reap the rewards of their web investments. That is the conclusion of a new study from the Newspaper Society which examined the online spending and strategies of trade, national and regional publishing groups. The report, written by consultancy Blue Rubicon on behalf of… Continue reading Newspapers Look To Harness Power Of The Net

Two of the UK’s leading newspaper groups have been priced out of the bidding for the publishing assets of SMG, according to a report in today’s Independent. The Daily Mail & General Trust and Guardian Media Group were seemingly unwilling to match SMG’s valuation of the titles which include The Herald and Sunday Herald. Eight… Continue reading Major Publishers Withdraw From SMG Auction

Friede Springer, the largest shareholder in the German publisher Axel Springer Verlag has consolidated her hold on the company by acquiring a 10.4% stake from Deutsche Bank. The bank yesterday took control of the 40% stake in Axel Springer previously owned by the indebted Kirch Media Group (see Deutsche Bank Temporarily Takes 40% Axel Springer… Continue reading Deutsche Bank Sells On 10% Stake In Axel Springer

There will be 75 million online banking customers in Europe by the end of 2005, up from 23 million in 2000 and 49 million this year. This is according to a new report from Datamonitor, as quoted by eMarketer. The European eBanking Market Update report shows that the UK, Germany and the Nordic region currently… Continue reading European E-Banking To Reach 75m By 2005, Says Datamonitor

Liberty Media is thought to be out of the running to acquire the cable assets of Deutsche Telekom for the second time, according to a report in the Financial Times. The paper quotes insiders as saying that Liberty’s consortium has failed to make it to the latest round of the auction. Liberty had put together… Continue reading Liberty Out Of Deutsche Telekom Cable Auction, Says FT

At a time when UK high street sales are sluggish, the internet is becoming an increasingly important marketplace and one of its major advantages would appear to be its flexibility. One third of all online sales are made between 6pm and 9am, according to new research from Barclaycard. “People with busy lives often don’t have… Continue reading Internet Luring Off Peak Shoppers, Says Report

Deutsche Bank has acquired a 40% stake in Axel Springer Verlag, Europe’s largest newspaper publisher, for E667.3 million. The stake was owned by Leo Kirch, the fallen head of the KirchGruppe media empire. The Springer shares were collateral for a loan which Deutsche Bank had extended to the Kirch group. The collateral was offered for… Continue reading Deutsche Bank Temporarily Takes 40% Axel Springer Stake

Online sales in the UK increased by more than 42% in 2001, according to an ecommerce survey of businesses carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The results show that, excluding the financial sector, £18.4 billion of sales were made over the internet last year. That is equivalent to 1% of total sales… Continue reading UK Online Sales Worth £18 Billion In 2001