TV Asahi buys into Asahi Shimbun
Co. publishes leading Japan newspaper
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The deal, announced Friday, is intended to strengthen ties between the two companies, allowing them to achieve new synergies between broadcasting and news publishing. TV Asahi bought 380,000 shares worth 23.94 billion yen ($228 million) from Michiko Murayama, the paper's leading shareholder and a granddaughter of its founder. This buy made the net, which previously had no stake in it, Asahi's No. 4 shareholder. The two companies have also set up a committee to explore ways to deepen their cooperation, with TV Asahi prexy Masao Kimiwada and Asahi Shimbun prexy Kotaro Akiyama serving as co-chairmen.
The Asahi Shimbun owns a 35.92% stake of TV Asahi. At the press conference announcing the stock sale, Akiyama said at the request of Murayama, it has agreed to sell 5% of its TV Asahi stake to her, reducing its ownership of the network and its subsids to 30.92%. Akiyama said the newspaper intends to further reduce this share to below 25% by the end of September.
Like other major newspapers in Japan and the U.S., Asahi's circulation numbers are heading south, falling from 8.26 million in 2002 to 8.05 million in the second half of 2005. Through its alliance with TV Asahi it hopes to ease its transition to the digital age.
