Murdoch eyes Çalık assets, WSJ reports
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
News Corp., the global media company owned by Rupert Murdoch, may join competition to acquire media assets owned by Turkey’s Çalık Group, the Wall Street Journal has claimed. “News Corp. is considering a bid for Sabah-ATV, according to people familiar with the matter, adding a new competitor to a small handful of big western private-equity and media companies in the running to possibly buy Turkey’s No. 2 media group,” a report on WSJ’s website Jan. 20 said.
Sabah-ATV owns the Sabah newspaper and the mainstream broadcaster ATV. News Corp. also controls Wall Street Journal. TPG Capital, KKR & Co LP, Time Warner and RTL are in talks to buy Çalık assets, according to earlier media reports. News Corp. demanded Goldman Sachs, which is authorized for the acquisition process, to delay a deadline for the pre-proposal period to next week, the WSJ said.
The deadline for collecting offers was delayed to Jan. 24 from Jan. 18, Bloomberg News reported last week, depending on a source close to the matter. The WSJ estimated the value of the Turkish company somewhere between $700 million and $1 billion
