Media 1996 - Company News Summary

Orbit, the Saudi-owned satellite TV concern, is considering the relocation of its Rome headquarters to Cardiff Bay with the creation of 700 jobs.
16-Nov-1996

Southern Newspapers has bought the South Wales Argus from United News & Media for £31m, a deal which includes 15 titles.
12-Nov-1996

Capital Radio has launched an agreed £57m bid for My Kinda Town, the themed restaurants chain, a move seen as an extension to its Radio Cafe idea.
12-Nov-1996

Emap has bought The Box, a cable TV music channel, from Video Jukebox Network and Ticketmaster of the US for £7.8m.
31-Oct-1996

National Publishing, a consortium supported by the Electra Fleming venture capital group, has acquired Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) for £54m, and will rename it Stationery Office.
01-Oct-1996

Circle Communications, the television rights company, is buying Oxford Scientific Films, the maker of wildlife programmes, for £3.8m.
27-Sep-1996

Daily Mail & General Trust is acquiring Broadcast Media, the Australian regional radio operator, for £23m.
25-Sep-1996

Scottish Radio is to acquire Downtown Radio of Northern Ireland for up to £10m.
03-Sep-1996

GWR Group is acquiring the remaining 83% of Classic FM, the national classical radio station, for £71m.
24-Aug-1996

Reed Elsevier is acquiring Tolley, the tax and legal publisher, for £100m, and is now planning a £2bn acquisition drive concentrated in electronic publishing.
09-Aug-1996

Newsquest Media Group is buying Westminster Press, the regional newspaper business, from Pearson for £305m.
06-Aug-1996

Midland Independent Newspapers has bought Newsquest (Midlands North), the publisher of free newspapers and magazines, for £12m.
30-Jul-1996

Scottish Television is buying Caledonian Publishing, the Scottish newspaper group, for £120m.
26-Jul-1996

Carlton Communications has bought Cinema Media, which controls about 80% of UK cinema advertising, for £58m.
23-Jul-1996

Reed Elsevier is linking up with Times Mirror, the US media group, to jointly acquire Shephard's, the legal publisher, for $250m.
04-Jul-1996

Ideal Hardware has bought Kinexus, the TV, film, and multimedia production concern, for £300k in shares.
28-Jun-1996

Cinven, the venture capital concern, has acquired Routledge, the academic publisher, from Thomson Corporation for £28m.
24-Jun-1996

Warner Bros is to set up a state-of-the-art animation studio in London which will employ 70 animation experts.
22-Jun-1996

Johnston Press is to buy Emap's regional newspaper business for about £205m, which will give it over 6% of the regional newspaper market.
04-Jun-1996

Carnell has acquired Columbus, the travel publisher, for £14m and also plans to buy Bleeding Edge Publications, the video magazine publisher.
24-May-1996

Mirror Group's Live TV cable television station is planning to launch a number of new stations over the next year with the creation of over 200 jobs.
21-May-1996

Liberty Publishing, the media subsidiary of Harrods, has bought Viva Radio, the radio station for women, for £3m.
04-May-1996

Metal Bulletin has acquired a 49% stake in Sea.Net, the provider of shipping information on the internet, for £1.2m.
24-Apr-1996

KPN, the Dutch telecoms concern, has bought Coventry Cable from Caledonian Media Communications for £24m.
03-Apr-1996

International CableTel is acquiring NTL, the IBA transmission operation, for £235m, in a move which should enable it to become a major force in telecommunications.
29-Mar-1996

Channel 5 Broadcasting is to recruit 5,000 people in the summer to retune television sets so that they can pick up Channel 5 when it is launched on January 1.
22-Mar-1996

IRG is buying Allied Radio, which covers Reigate, Crawley and Manchester, for £4.5m.
09-Mar-1996

GWR of Swindon is buying Prospect, the New Zealand radio business with 12 stations, for £11.6m.
02-Mar-1996

Associated Newspapers has acquired a majority stake in the PeopleBank on-line recruitment agency, which claims to save employers 90% of the costs associated with finding new staff.
13-Feb-1996

Pearson is buying Harper Collins' educational publishing activities for $580m.
10-Feb-1996

United News and Media has announced a £3bn merger with MAI, bringing together a wide range of media activities but expected to bypass restrictions on media ownership.
09-Feb-1996

Carlton Communications has bought SelecTV, the cable channel, for £5.2m, but will put its holding into a "dead-locked" company to avoid breaching broadcasting rules.
31-Jan-1996

Pearson Professional is acquiring Data Management Services and The Magazine Business.
18-Jan-1996

Abbott Mead Vickers has bought Fishburn Hedges Boys Williams, the corporate communications concern, for up to £15m.
17-Jan-1996