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Gemstar TV Guide’s announced sale to Macrovision Corp. is battling for shareholder approval and may not go through, according to industry observers, writes Folio.
The $2.8 billion sale is pending shareholder approval at both companies, and Gemstar’s declining stock price, along with questions surrounding Macrovision’s plans for the company, have led to speculation that some stockholders may vote against the deal.
Loeb Partners, which has a 2.1 percent stake in Macrovision, has said that it will vote against the merger, while News Corp., which owns 41 percent of Gemstar, has agreed publicly to approve the deal.
Federal regulators have given the merger the go-ahead, but analysts have frowned at the deal, wondering where the TV Guide piece fits into the Macrovision pie. The Macrovision CEO, Fred Amoroso, said when the sale was announced that no decisions had been made about TV Guide or its publishing division.
Reed Phillips, managing partner at media banker DeSilva + Phillips, said the deal is “certainly not a slam dunk. There appears to be some controversy regarding the price. We’ll have to wait and see how much clout the shareholders have.”
Hyper-conservative Rush Limbaugh - heard weekly by nearly 20 million listeners on about 600 radio stations nationwide - renewed his contract with Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Radio, continuing syndication of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
The deal also includes…
WSJ.com’s traffic soared an impressive 94 percent in June compared to the same month last year, according to the company’s internal traffic numbers.
Total page views ballooned 45 percent, to 150 million, compared to the same month last year, writes Mediaweek.…
Kozy Shack, maker of rice and chocolate pudding, is sponsoring the New York Mets, with tubs of the pudding being sold individually at Shea Stadium as well as being included in children’s meals. And the snacks are selling so well…
Though U.K. advertiser investment committed for 2008 is staying put, discretionary spending is becoming shorter-term, at or slightly short of budget; still, WPP’s GroupM forecasts 4 percent growth in 2008 and 3 percent in 2009 for the U.K., thanks to internet…
Email is the most popular form of direct response marketing, with 35 percent of companies using it - compared to 25 percent that use traditional direct mail - according to a new survey conducted by Direct Partners (via Adweek).
The survey…
Without spam protection, the average web user can expect to get 70 spam messages each day, according to a survey by McAfee, the BBC reports (via MarketingVOX).
For the McAfee spam test, 50 people worldwide were asked to web-surf without a spam…
