US media conglomerate Viacom's music broadcasting unit MTV Networks said on Tuesday it has agreed to buy all the shares it does not already own in MTV Japan from private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific.
The acquisition is MTV's second biggest outside the United States, after its purchase of German broadcasting channel Viva for 308 million euros ($395 million) in 2004, a source close to the deal said.
He said MTV Japan was buying 68 percent of the company to boost its ownership to 100 percent. Spokesmen for both sides of the transaction declined to comment on the exact value of the deal.
Upon completion, MTV Networks will add the children's television programme service Nickelodeon and the digital media brand Flux to its MTV Japan business line-up.
"This deal puts Japan at the forefront of our Asian business and advances our strategy to expand our scale in one of Asia's high-growth digital media markets," Bill Roedy, president of MTV Networks International, said in a statement.
H&Q Asia Pacific, which has about $400 million for investment according to the Hong Kong-based research firm AVCJ Group Ltd, was instrumental in bringing the MTV brand to Japan in 2001. It bought a Japanese music channel in 2000 and created a joint venture partnership with MTV Networks that became MTV Japan.
Over the past 18 months, MTV Japan's advertising growth has grown by 19 percent, another source close to the deal said.
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