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Money never sleeps, the old saying goes. Actually, it isn’t that old. It comes from the fabled Gordon Gekko character in the movie Wall Street not even a decade ago. That character also coined the “greed is good” phrase that, still to this day, sends the pulse rates of the venture capital folks pitter-pat.
Last week broadcaster Central European Media Enterprises (CME) and cable operator United Group officially released each other from an agreement to sell the Slovenian television assets of the former to the later. It was not unexpected. In November the Slovenian Competition Protection Agency (AVK) effectively killed the deal. (See more about CME here)
United Group, then funded by giant venture capital firm KKR, intended to acquire Slovenian and Croatian TV assets of CME but it had earlier acquired Slovenian telecom Telemach, which owns Slovenia Broadband. It was a step too far for the AVK. United Group agreed in 2017 to offer CME €230 million for the Slovenian and Croatian TV assets. Croatian authorities approved their part of the transaction.
It would have been “the biggest media takeover in the history of Slovenia,” said Slovenian news portal soil.net (January 18). CME owns POP TV, Kanal A and other television channels in Slovenia and, according to their statement, they have great affection for the business. “We have always said this transaction was not a reflection of our outlook for the business,” said co- chief executive Christoph Mainusch. “Quite the contrary, we are strong believers in the value of television assets and the future of the Slovenian operations, which have been confirmed by its spectacular growth over the last year.”
Heading toward that magic five-year trade window, KKR sold most of its stake in United Group to another VC, BC Partners, last September. Meanwhile, CME is principally owned by Time Warner, which was renamed WarnerMedia after its $85 billion merger with telecom giant AT&T. That deal is being challenged by the US Department of Justice on anti-competitive grounds.
Prolific Hollywood film producer Andy Vajna died this past weekend. Action movies were his forte: the Rambo series, Terminator, Total Recall, Air America, Die Hard. He also produced the Oscar-winning film Evita. He was 74 and had been ill for some time.
He returned to his native Hungary in the later 1990s, producing and co-producing several films as well as distributing Hollywood and Hungarian films. He was named Hungarian Film Commissioner in 2011 and provided funding for Hungarian-produced films. He was awarded licenses for several casinos.
In 2015 Mr. Vajna began a new career as a media owner in Hungary, first acquiring television channel TV2, national radio network Radio 1 then a small newspaper publisher. TV2 was acquired through state bank loan and Mr. Vajna did not acknowledge the transaction for more than a year. Radio 1 effectively replaced national radio channel Class FM, after which the Hungarian Media Council changed its status and it became a network of 30 local stations. (See more about media in Hungary here)
As a firm supporter of Hungarian autocrat Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Mr. Vajna’s media outlets reflected those views and was among a set of wealthy, well-connected Hungarians to effectively transform the country’s media landscape. Hungarian media watchers are eagerly awaiting disposition of his media assets. “The void he left would like to be filled,” noted index.hu (January 21), “and many people want to replace Andy Vajna.”
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