Broadcast production. Israeli Keshet International, producer of Homeland and the A Team, invests in UK production incubator Greenbird – including taking over BBC’s 30% stake Keshet
Gfinity plc acquires RealSport for £2.4m
B2C digital. RealSport’s platform includes news documentaries, podcasts and opinion Gfinity
Lagardere takes majority of SkyHigh TV, Netherlands Terms undisclosed
Broadcast-streaming. SkyHigh TV is Netherlands’ largest indie TV producer Lagardere
Penske Media, of US, acquires SheKnows Media. Terms undisclosed
B2C digital. 15-year-old privately-owned, highly-acquisitive Penske is increasingly global. It owns Variety, Women’s Wear Daily, Deadline, Robb Report, Rolling Stone and, now, the SheKnows network of fem-food-fashion sites and BlogHer conferences. It has also just bagged a $200m investment from a Saudi fund. Jay Penske still owns 60%, but is he limbering up to IPO…
Cox sells Austin American-Statesman (85k circ daily) to GateHouse Media for $47.5m
News. Sale by Atlanta-based Cox (mainly broadcast and digital now) includes Austin Communities Newspaper group and Spanish language weekly newspaper Ahora Si GateHouse Media
Australian pay TV network Foxtel merges with Fox Sports
Broadcast-streaming. News Corp finally gets control (75%) of Foxtel after decades of being a minority partner to Aussie telco Telstra (now 25%). Note that all Murdoch news, TV, digital and publishing assets in Australia are owned by News Corp not 21st Century Fox. News Corp
Euromoney buys 45-year-old Extel investor survey for “less than £5m”
B2B information. Last year, over 15,500 investment professionals cast 1.1m votes, providing an “unparalleled dataset to help clients analyse and drive their market understanding”. Will be integrated into Euromoney’s research business. After the sale of Dealogic, it still has over £200m cash so expect more deals. Euromoney
S&P Global agrees to acquire Kensho analytics for $550m
B2b information. Kensho is provider of analytics, A1, machine learning, and data visualization systems to global banks, investment institutions, and ‘National Security community’
Google sells Zagat to restaurant review start-up. Nominal price.
B2C digital. Google bought the legendary Zagat restaurant guides for $151m in 2011, to become an online hub for restaurants as part of Google Maps. But has lost out to Citymapper and others. Now all but given away to start-up The Infatuation. The Infatuation
Seek, of Melbourne, buys out minority partner News Corp for $157m
B2C digital. 21-year-old Aussie listed Asia-wide employment classifieds co is paying $157m for News Corp’s 13.75% stake in Seek Asia. SEEK
