Dyke Joins Apax Amid Rumours Of Potential ITV Bid
Greg Dyke has joined Apax partners, the private equity group that specialises in media deals, in a move that has revived speculation linking the former BBC director general with ITV.
Dyke, who quit the BBC in the wake of the damning Hutton report, has joined Apax’s media team as an advisor. It is understood that he will help the group, which prepared a bid for ITV last year, to run the slide rule over potential media acquisitions.
The former BBC director general has been persistently linked with the top job at ITV after it emerged that he had met with the broadcaster’s chairman, Sir Peter Burt. However, Burt later issued a statement insisting he had no intention of attempting of to install Dyke as the new chief executive (see New ITV Boss Claims Allen Is Safe As Chief Executive).
Reports now suggest that Dyke is sounding out potential investors about the possibility of bidding for ITV, a move that would allow him to exact revenge for his exit from the network ten years ago. One City analyst said: “Greg has been looking at putting together a bid for ITV on a few occasions. It came up again a few week ago.”
Another possible outcome of Dyke’s decision to join Apax is that the private equity group may bid for BBC Worldwide, the Corporation’s multimillion pound commercial arm, if it is auctioned off. Rumours of the potential sale have already caught the attention of some of the world’s biggest media companies, including Bertelsmann, Time Warner and Disney (see Global Media Giants Line Up For BBC Worldwide).
Media is a favoured area of investment for Apax, together with telecommunications, retail and financial services. Last year under the guidance of Neil Blackley, the former Merrill Lynch analyst who chairs the Apax media board, the private equity group put together a consortium to bid for ITV before the merger of Carlton and Granada. The group came close to launching a bid, put was put off by shareholders, who were not keen on the idea of a sale (see Venture Capitalists Eye Carlton And Granada).
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