News Media on Sale ????????

MUMBAI: Anil Ambani's Reliance Capital has progressively upped its stake in TV Today Network to 14.02 per cent, but is still outside the 15 per cent deadline to trigger an open offer for a fresh 20 per cent acquisition.

Memories of an open offer go back to June 2007 when Reliance Capital took the aggressive step without being forced into it by takeover regulation. Having taken its stake then to 11.93, Reliance fixed the open offer price at Rs 130.50 per share that did not evoke any interest from shareholders to sell their shares.

Reliance Capital's renewed interest in TV Today, which runs a clutch of news channels including the Hindi market leader Aaj Tak, reflected in the market on 7 December when it mopped up 0.11 per centstake, or 67,000 shares, to take its total holding to 14.02 per cent, or 8.1 million shares.

A TV Today official declined to comment.

A spurt in buying by Reliance Capital has prompted a sharp rise in the scrip price of TV Today that was hovering around Rs 100 in November. The scrip touched a high of Rs 151.80 on 4 December.

After 7 December, the shares of TV Today have started steadily falling from its high price. The scrip ended Wednesday at Rs 122 on the BSE, up 1.5 per cent from the previous day's close.

The promoter holding in TV Today is 55.92 per cent, according to data provided by the company till 30 September 2009.
http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k9/dec/dec161.php

IBN18 Broadcast To Raise $90 Million Through QIP, Private Placement
http://contentsutra.com/article/419-ibn18-broadcast-to-raise-90-million-through-qip-private-placement/

Raghav Bahl’s IBN18 Broadcast Ltd is planning to raise $90 million (Rs 400 crore) through a public issue or a private placement or a qualified institutional placement. Earlier this year the firm had changed its name from Global Broadcast News to IBN18 Broadcast Ltd. The Board of IBN has also called for an Extra-Ordinary General meeting (EGM) on October 1, 2008 to seek shareholders approval on its decision to raise money, the company said in it communique’ to the stock exchange.

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Private equity fund IL&FS Investment Managers holds about 8% stake in IBN18 Broadcast. They had invested $9 million in November 2006. Rajdeep Sardesai, who is the Editor-In-Chief,  holds a 4% stake while IBN’s director Sameer Manchanda, holds an 8% stake. Another big shareholder is Reliance Capital, holding around 9%.

IBN 18 operates English news channel CNN-IBN and Hindi news channel IBN7. It also runs a Marathi news channel, which is an equal joint venture with Lokmat. IBN has also tied up with Viacom (NYSE: VIA) to launch a general entertainment channel, Colors. IBN18 is trading at Rs 109 as against its 52-week high of Rs 256 per share.

Reliance Capital Buys 4.46% Additional Stake In Zee Learn

By Nachiket Kelkar
MUMBAI, DEC 27 (TickerNews Service): Reliance Capital Trustee Co Ltd Monday said it acquired about 5.48 million shares, or 4.46% additional stake, in Zee Learn Ltd via open market transaction.
Post this acquisition, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group company now holds 6.57% stake in Zee Learn, it said in a notice to the stock exchanges.
At 3:15PM, Zee Learn shares were at Rs 25.15 on National Stock Exchange, up 5% from previous close. (End)
http://money.sulekha.com/reliance-capital-buys-4-46-additional-stake-in-zee-learn_news_24153

Anil Ambani: Our Very Own Rupert Murdoch!

After our very own Richard Branson in Vijay Mallya, we may just have our very own Rupert Murdoch as well in Anil Ambani. Just over a couple of years after the famous split with elder brother Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani may have lost the race to become a trillionaire to his brother, but now he is looking all set to make it big in the media world with ample number of strategic acquisitions and buying of stakes - either directly or through companies that he controls.

And this comes as no surprise as it is predicted that the Indian media and entertainment will be worth a whopping Rs. 800 billion by 2010 from the current figure of Rs. 437 billion.

while there are many in the pipeline like Ram Gopal Verma’s "Sholay" and his sequel to the movie "Sarkar". 

The foray into this area began in 2005 when Anil Ambani acquired a 51% controlling stake in Adlabs, which was majorly into film processing and ran multiplexes. This stake was worth Rs. 350 crores. Today, the company has forayed into areas like film production and distribution. Quite recently, Hrithik Roshan became the country’s highest paid actor curtsey a Rs. 35 Crore 3-film deal with Adlabs. Director Vipul Shah too struck jackpot when he was signed for a ten-film 100 crore-rupee deal by Adlabs. Recent movies like "Namaste London" & "Nishabd" were produced by Adlabs, 

Further on, Adlabs bought a stake in quiz master Sidhharth Basu’s Synergy Communications (which made the very famous "Kaun Banega Crorepati" or KBC), thus, giving it a footing into television production and content.

Internet portals too caught Anil Ambani’s eye. He jumped onto the Internet bandwagon via the gaming portal "Zapak.com". Further, his company Zapak Entertainment added on features like e-mail to the gaming portal and then came in Zapak Mail which is being hugely advertised via TV, print and Internet advertisements these days as a 'simple n fast' e-mail service. Infact, recently Zapak Mail created a world record when over 1,15,000 users signed up for their e-mail service in a single day!

If that was not all, Zapak Entertainment decided to take on the hugely popular social networking site Orkut with the launch of its desi-version called Bigadda.com. Zapak is also all set to launch Gaming Cafes.

Then there are Anil Ambani’s BIG plans for radio as well. His company Adlabs got 45 licenses for Big 92.7 FM and over a third of these stations are already on air. The kind of aggression shown in the launch and promotion of Big FM and Zapak are very much characteristic of the kind of things the Ambanis do - Take the market and industry by storm! Quite recently BIG MUSIC stepped into the music industry by getting the music rights for the latest Hindi flick "CASH".

The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group will also launch its Internet Protocol Television Service (IPTV) and Direct-to-Home (DTH) service - Reliance BlueMagic by the end of 2007. However, in these segments the competition will be tough in the form of Bharti Group, Subhash Chandra’s Zee (Dish TV) and the Star-Tata combine (Tata Sky). But one can surely put his money on Anil Ambani to revolutionize the way we watch TV.

If this was not all, Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Capital has stakes in premier media houses in the country - Aroon Purie’s TV Today Group (the group runs TV channels Aaj Tak, Headlines Today, Dilli Aaj Tak and publishes famous magazines India Today & Business Today), Raghav Bahl’s TV 18 (it channel bouquet includes CNN IBN, IBN 7, CNBC, CNBC Awaaz, and it recently tied up with Viacom to launch a general entertainment channel), Prannoy Roy’s New Delhi Television, or NDTV, which runs news channels NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India, and is all set to launch life-style channel.

The company also has stakes in Zee Entertainment and UTV Softwares. It is note-worthy that two of these groups - Zee and TV Today - have their presence in print media too. Zee runs the DNA newspaper while Aroon Purie’s TV Today has a mid-day newspaper named 'Today' and is all set to launch a morning tabloid too. The Ambani’s had attempted a newspaper venture in the 1980s but it did not work too well. Anil Ambani may just have his eye on a second attempt. 

There is no doubt that a strong position in the telecom segment with Reliance Communications will be of immense help for Anil Ambani to strengthen his foothold as a media giant. A strong backbone of fiber optic network of Reliance Communications will be a shot in the arm for ADAG. With the telecom industry set to go ahead with a giant leap with 3G, the content bank that Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is creating will surely be a huge asset for the group.

http://www.coolavenues.com/mba-journal/strategy/anil-ambani-our-very-own-rupert-murdoch