Springer to buy [Saban's] ProSiebenSat.1 for EUR 2.47bn

[Kellanved]

BERLIN - Giant German media group, Axel Springer AG announced Friday it was paying EUR 2.47 billion to buy the nation's largest commercial television group, ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG from U.S. billionaire Haim Saban.

The friendly takeover of ProSiebenSat.1 by Europe's biggest newspaper publisher will create Germany's second largest media group after Bertelsmann AG and could consequently pave the open the way for a shakeout in the nation's lucrative and intensely competitive advertising market.

Bertelsmann is the owner of ProSiebenSat.1's rival RTL as well as Europe's biggest publishing house Gruner & Jahr and the prestigious New York-based Random House book publishers.

"It is the right transaction at the right time," Springer chief Mathias Doepfner told a press conference in Munich, adding that he expected the new group to represent a serious challenge to Bertelsmann.
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http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=22569&name=Springer+to+buy+ProSiebenSat%2E1+for+EUR+2%2E47bn

[tocqueville]

1. for a moment I thought it was Jerry Springer...

[Moochy]

2. Darn

For a second I thought maybe Jerry Springer was leaving AAR :)

They own Die Welt which has been critical of Bush and Blair, but not much outside Germany it looks like. Their competitor Bertelsmann AG is a huge company with lots of holdings outside Germany.

[Kellanved]

3. die Welt is a conservative rag

Just like all other Springer papers.

And they were cheerleading the Iraq war until it became impossible to sell pro-war stories.

Springer is hardly present in the English language countries - probably due to a Springer-Murdoch-Kirch agreement.