Big Brother's dad changes masters. After the exit of Mediaset in 2012, the three billion debt restructuring and the entry of the Apollo funds, now owned by Endemol travel to the open arms of Rupert Murdoch.
La 21st Century Fox of the Australian tycoon has reached an agreement with the Apollo funds to create a maxi-pole of TV content production which will include, in addition to the Dutch company, also Core Media (another subsidiary of Apollo) and Shine Group (formerly of 21st Century ).
The new group, which will be able to count on a TV portfolio of over 600 formats, will be equal: 50% to Murdoch and the same to the funds. Operational guidance will be entrusted to Sophie Turner Laing, former managing director of the content division at BSkyB.
The alliance with BSkyB comes just a few months after the end of a long process of financial restructuring of Endemol which has led the group's main creditors to convert their financial exposure into capital.
In 2007 Endemol was bought by a consortium made up of Mediaset, Goldman Sachs and Cyrte Fund of the founder John de Mol.
