After days of speculation, the official confirmation.
Former BPL scion and Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Chandrasekhar‘s “strategic partnership alliance” with Express publications for control of Kannada Prabha is now out.
(The transaction, when completed, is said to be valued at Rs 250 crore.)
Below is the full text.
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“Jupiter Media and Entertainment Ventures (Jupiter) and Express Publications (Madurai) Limited (EPML) today announced a strategic alliance that will jointly pursue media opportunities in various languages.
“Initially, this partnership will cover Jupiter taking equity investments in Kannada Prabha, a leading Kannada daily newspaper, subsequently exploring potential opportunities in other languages.
“This alliance will enable a vast synergy between two of Kannada’s most respected news brands, namely Kannada Prabha and Suvarna News 24×7, especially in the wide editorial network across Karnataka and product and space marketing. This partnership and strategic alliance will help propel these two brands and products into leadership positions, by giving the best in editorial, news reporting and features acceptable to millions of readers.
“This is the first time in India that two leaders and well-entrenched players of print and TV medium are coming together. The resultant alliance is bound to unlock new opportunities in Karnataka and beyond, in turn benefiting various stakeholders such as readers/viewers, employees and advertisers.”
Express Publications (Madurai) Limited was founded by Ramnath Goenka, along with other companies in the Indian Express Group. The company now forms part of the New Indian Express group owned and managed by Manoj Kumar Sonthalia, the grandson of Goenka.
The New Indian Express group brings out newspapers and periodicals from 22 centres. The company’s publications include the New Indian Express in English, Dinamani in Tamil and Kannada Prabha in Kannada, and the magazines Cinema Express in Tamil (a fortnightly), Tamilan Express in Tamil (a weekly) and Samakalika Malayalam Vaarika in Malayalam (a weekly).
Jupiter media and entertainment ventures owns, operates or has invested in a number of media assets in South India covering television news, entertainment television and radio. These include Suvarna News 24×7, a Kannada news channel, Asianet News, the Malayalam news channel, Asianet and Asianet Plus (Malayalam), Suvarna (Kannada), Vijay (Tamil) and Sitara (Telugu). It also has radio brands Best FM and Radio Indigo, and a movie production.
Cartoon: courtesy The Telegraph, Calcutta
External reading: Poovayya & Co, advisors to the deal
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Jupiter and EPML aliance long live. Wish all
the best to new alliance print and electronic media.