Russia blocks Disney TV purchase
Anti-trust body rejects $233 million deal
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Russia’s powerful Federal Anti-Monopoly Commission (FAS) said the deal for a 49% stake in a joint venture with regional commercial network Media One TV, which runs channels in 30 of the country’s 89 regions, was not in the interests of free competition.
Documentation provided by Disney -- represented by Catalpa Investments -- supporting the deal “did not contain the information necessary for acceptance ... in conformity with” anti-monopoly laws, FAC said in a statement on its website.
Disney declined to comment Tuesday on the decision, and Media One TV’s owner Ivan Tarvin did not respond to requests for comment.
The size of the deal agreed between the two companies had raised eyebrows in the TV industry here, where the economic downturn is predicted to slash advertising revenue this year by some 30%.
Foreign investment in the media is allowed -- Sweden’s Modern Times Group owns a 39% stake in CTC Media, one of the country’s leading commercial channels, and the pan-European RTL Group has 30% of REN TV.
But the FAS decision is the second in recent months blocking major international investment in the media.
In October, the body refused Google’s $140 million bid to buy Internet contextual advertising system Beguyn from Russian Internet portal Rambler Media. The reason for refusal was also given as “insufficient information.”
In a country where TV is a politically sensitive strategic industry, there could be more to both decisions than meets the eye.
“It’s not business, but politics,” one unidentified local TV exec told business daily Kommersant.
