Media News - Tuesday, August 26, 2008

News Corp to sell Bulgarian broadcaster - official

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will sell bTV, the Bulgarian terrestrial broadcaster it owns, by the end of 2008, the head of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), Maria Stefanova, told Bulgarian National Radio. The regulator was notified of News Corp's intentions a month earlier through a letter signed by bTV's executive director Viki Politova and managing director Albert Parsons, Stefanova said. Report in mid-July claimed that Bulgarian operations, along with two Latvian channels and Fox Televizija in Serbia, were being evaluated by investment bankers Lehman Brothers, hired by News Corp to 'ascertain the value and strategic options' of the broadcasters. The sale of bTV would run in parallel with similar processes in Latvia and Serbia, as well as a Polish broadcaster News Corp owned, Stefanova said. The Bulgarian broadcaster is the biggest broadcaster put on the selling block and its sale could be wrapped up by the end of the year, with four unnamed bidders in the running, the CEM head said. Media reports in July claimed three investment funds - Warburg Pincus, Advent International and GMT Communications Partners - were all interested to buy bTV. (Sofia Echo)

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