Sep 8th 2004
By: Luke
By: Luke
Worldwide Sell-Off?
FT reports:
The BBC has invited Time Warner, Bertelsmann and Walt Disney to discuss possible bids for BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial sales and publishing arm.
BBC executives believe the Worldwide division, which generated free cashflow of �141m ($250m) in the 12 months to March 31, could be worth up to �2bn.
But the reliable Raymond Snoddy in The Independent reports:
Mark Thompson [BBC Director General] played down the likelihood of a �1bn privatisation of BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC.
Thompson has said, “We are looking at BBC Worldwide with open minds but it is not a foregone conclusion that we are talking about large-scale sell-offs.”
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