Time Warner Takeover Talks Lead To Rise Of ITV Shares

The shares of British broadcaster ITV rose as much as 8 percent due to the renewed takeover talks that have been going on lately, involving some big names as Time Warner Inc. or Goldman Sachs, according to the Reuters agency.

As reported by CNN Money, according to the British newspaper Mail, the U.S. media group Time Warner Inc. and U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs have decided to work together with the British company Apax in order to consider a bid.

Talk that Apax could be interested in ITV has swirled for months and heightened after the buyout firm hired former BBC Director General Greg Dyke last year.

The speculation comes amid a round of consolidation and buyout activity in the UK media sector, with several private equity groups including Apax, 3i and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co focusing larger proportions of their multi-billion dollar buyout funds on the sector.

Time Warner, which owns Warner Bros film studios and television networks HBO and CNN, as well as CNN/Money, does not have as broad an international television presence as its media conglomerate rivals Viacom, which owns MTV, and Disney.

Goldman Sachs, whose Goldman Sachs Capital Partners has raised $8.5 billion for buyouts, has shown an appetite for media, having recently bought the cable assets of Italy's Pirelli for 1.3 billion euros and invested in U.S. sports channel Yankees Entertainment and Sports.

Shares of ITV earlier jumped as much as 8 percent to a 15-month high, but pared those gains to trade up 4.2 percent at 130 pence a share by 7:11 a.m. ET, giving the media company a market value of about �5.11 billion.

For more information, please visit http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/04/news/international/itv.reut/