Disney and CBS Explore Univision Deal
Several big media companies, including the Walt Disney Company and CBS, have held meetings with Univision’s management over the last week about making a takeover offer for the company, the New York Times reported. Univision, the largest Spanish-language television and radio company in the nation, put itself up for auction in February. Disney, which had not been identified before as showing an interest in acquiring Univision, has been spending considerable time with Univision’s management poring over the company’s books in recent days. The negotiations with Disney and CBS come as Grupo Televisa, Mexico’s biggest media company, which provides much of Univision’s most popular programming, is planning to join the auction formally in the next week with its own investor consortium.
Pellicano Says U.S. Spied on Him
In a twist to a wiretapping scandal captivating Hollywood, the private eye indicted for allegedly bugging celebrities and other high-profile targets has accused the federal government of spying on him in prison through a secret arrangement with his then-girlfriend, the Los Angeles Times reported. Anthony Pellicano’s attorney filed motions this week in federal court saying Sandra Wil Carradine provided FBI agents and prosecutors with a “fountain of information” after a series of jailhouse visits late last year, giving them insights into the lawyer’s legal strategy and violating his attorney-client privilege.
MediaNews acquires McClatchy’s NorCal Papers
MediaNews Group Inc. acquired three newspapers in Northern California, including San Jose Mercury News, and one in Minnesota from McClatchy Co. on Wednesday in a $1 billion deal, the Mercury News reported. The deal puts Denver-based MediaNews, which owns the Los Angeles Daily News and seven other newspapers in Southern California, among the top four newspaper chains in the country by total daily circulation, surpassing The New York Times Co. and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Warner unit to create cable TV shows
Warner Bros. Television, the biggest producer of prime-time series for broadcast networks over the last two decades, is creating a unit to generate series specifically for cable TV networks, the company announced Wednesday. The longtime head of the studio, Peter Roth, will also lead the unit, to be called Warner Horizon Television. Warner Bros. Television, a unit of Time Warner, also announced that it had signed a multiyear extension to Roth’s contract as president of the television studio.
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Councils gain DONE voice
In response to concerns that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would choose the next director of neighborhood councils without community input, his office said Wednesday that he will consult councils before he selects the next general manager for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. That was welcome news for council leaders. The general manager sets the tone of the relationship between DONE and neighborhood councils, so community input is essential, said Leonard Shaffer, who is president of the Tarzana Neighborhood Council and chairman of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Congress.
