First Stage of the Acquisition of The Jerusalem Post Completed
16 Dicembre 2004 - 5:15PM
PR Newswire (US)
First Stage of the Acquisition of The Jerusalem Post Completed
WINNIPEG, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CanWest Global
Communications Corp. today announced that its partner, Mirkaei
Tikshoret Group Ltd (MTL) has completed the acquisition of the
shares of the Palestine Post Limited, the publisher of The
Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Report and related properties (The
Jerusalem Post Group) from Hollinger International Inc. for US$13.2
million, in cash. The transaction had received approval from the
Israeli anti- trust regulatory authorities on December 8th. Under
an arrangement announced in mid-November, the MTL and CanWest joint
venture partnership will own all the assets of The Jerusalem Post
newspaper and related properties. The partnership is expected to
complete the acquisition of the Jerusalem Post Group assets by the
end of December 2004. MTL is a major privately held media group
based in Israel, with business interests that include newspapers,
magazines, radio, out-of-home advertising and commercial printing.
The Jerusalem Post Group consists of The Jerusalem Post, a daily
English language newspaper, and several related publications and
media operations. The Jerusalem Post was founded in 1932 and was
originally published as The Palestine Post and adopted its current
masthead in 1953. The Group includes The International Jerusalem
Post, the world's leading weekly publication focusing on Israel and
the Jewish world, with paid circulation in over 100 countries, and
The Weekend Jerusalem Post, published in metropolitan New York, a
French language weekly, Edition Francais Jerusalem Post, which
expands the reach of the newspaper to French-language readers
around the world and The Jerusalem Report, a weekly news magazine
with paid circulation in 70 countries. Jpost.com, the Group's
online news Web site is the most frequently visited Israeli Web
site with 14 million page views per month, more than one million
unique users monthly and over 385,000 registered users. Jpost.com
accounts for nearly 20% of the Group's advertising revenues. The
Jerusalem Post Group also owns an Internet radio station
jpradio.com, which commenced operations in 2000. Leonard Asper,
President and Chief Executive Officer of CanWest, said, "We are
pleased that this acquisition is moving forward as planned and are
excited about working with our new partners in Israel in building
on a great global newspaper brand. One of our first priorities will
be to bring CanWest MediaWorks' expertise to bear in improving the
profile and circulation in North America of the Jerusalem Post."
Mr. Eli Azur, President and Chief Executive Officer of the MTL
Group, said, "This brings to close an important first step for this
transaction. We now can move forward quickly to work on further
developing a great international newspaper, magazine and website."
This news release contains certain comments or forward-looking
statements that are based largely upon the Company's current
expectations and are subject to certain risks, trends and
uncertainties. These factors could cause actual future performance
to vary materially from current expectations. CanWest Global
Communications Corp. (NYSE: CWG; TSX: CGS.SV and CGS.NV,
http://www.canwestglobal.com/) is an international media company,
and also Canada's largest media company. In addition to owning the
Global Television Network, CanWest is Canada's largest publisher of
daily newspapers, and also owns, operates and/or holds substantial
interests in conventional television, out-of- home advertising,
specialty cable channels, Web sites and radio networks in Canada,
New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. DATASOURCE: CanWest Global
Communications Corp. CONTACT: Geoffrey Elliot, Vice President,
Corporate Affairs, Tel: (204) 956-2025, Fax: (204) 947-9841,
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