United News & Media disposed of the Express Newspaper group yesterday to ‘porn baron’ Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell (see Gossip And Girlie Publisher Takes On Express And Star). News of the £125m deal, which saw the new management team moving in by yesterday afternoon, did little good to UNM’s share price, which ended down 12p at £8.04.
The bad news continued across almost all other media shares. BSkyB dropped 70p to £9.90, while Daily Mail fell just over 53p to £8.62. Reuters fell by more than 9%, ending the day’s trading down £1.12 at £11.15, and SMG dropped 13p to end at £2.58.
The closing prices of media company shares yesterday were:
