Ro
En
Рy
‘The Special Committee of the Board, together with our advisors, conducted an extensive review of alternatives, which involved outreach to and engagement with a significant number of strategic and financial parties. This announcement today reaffirms our commitment to deliver value to all shareholders’, stated John Billock, Chairman of the CME Board of Directors. In a joint statement, Michael Del Nin and Christoph Mainusch, Chief Executive Officers, claimed that this transaction ‘is the right one for our shareholders and a satisfying conclusion to one of the most successful turnarounds of a leading media company in recent times’.
The agreement was approved unanimously by CME’s Board of Directors, on the recommendation of the Special Committee of the Board.
CME, the largest television supplier in Central and Eastern Europe, was owned by the American giant AT&T, which took the company over from Time Warner in a global transaction.
The CME media group operates in five markets in Central and Eastern Europe, where it is among the market leaders. CME's operations broadcast 30 television channels in Bulgaria (bTV, bTV Cinema, bTV Comedy, bTV Action, bTV Lady and Ring), the Czech Republic (Nova, Nova 2, Nova Cinema, Nova Sport 1, Nova Sport 2, Nova International, Nova Action and Nova Gold), Romania (PRO TV, PRO 2, PRO X, PRO GOLD, PRO CINEMA, PRO TV International and PRO TV Chisinau), the Slovakia (TV Markiza, Markiza International, Doma and Dajto) and Slovenia (POP TV, Kanal A, Brio, Oto and Kino).
Petr Kellner, the controlling shareholder of PPF investment group, claims, in the press release, that the acquisition of CME will strengthen telecommunications operations in Central and Eastern Europe.
‘The acquisition of CME with its media assets in five European countries will complement and further strengthen our telecommunications operations in Central and Eastern Europe. We want to leverage the natural synergies between the creation of content and its distribution with the objective of further developing our telecommunications and media businesses. CME is a healthy and well-run organization and we do not intend to make any significant changes to its operations’, said Petr Kellner.
According to g4media.ro, Petr Kellner holds an economic empire with very close links to the Russian and Chinese market.
