• Reuters, Thursday, July 6, 2006 12 PM

Mexican media giant Televisa is prepared to sell its stake in Univision to a private equity consortium after being outbid in its takeover attempt, reports Reuters. The move will allow the company to explore rival opportunities in the U.S. Hispanic media market. Televisa owns an 11.4 percent stake in Univision, and could have remained an investor even after the company is taken private for about $12.3 billion by a group including U.S. media tycoon Haim Saban. The announcement, Reuters notes, "marks a shift for Televisa, which had long sought to boost its stake in Univision, the dominant U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster." Televisa had led its own group in the bidding for Univision last month, but was edged out by Saban and his partners. Now, "Televisa is prepared to discuss with you (the consortium) a sale of its shares of Univision as soon as possible based on the present value of the price per share set forth in the merger agreement," the company says in a filing with federal regulators. The sale of its stake would release Televisa from a 1996 agreement with Univision's controlling shareholder that has curbed its expansion in the U.S. Under the terms of that deal, except for certain satellite television services, Televisa is obliged to share up to 50 percent of any new business it starts in the United States.

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