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overview
This profile deals with Naspers, the South African print
and broadcasting conglomerate.
It covers -
introduction
Capetown-based Naspers operates in electronic media
(pay television and internet subscriber platforms, and
related technologies) and print media (newspapers, magazines,
printing, book publishing and private education).
The group's most significant operations are located in
South Africa, where it generates around 72% of its revenue,
but over the past three decades it has expanded into sub-saharan
Africa, Greece, Cyprus, the Netherlands, the United States,
Thailand and China.
evolution
Naspers traces its origins to Nasionale Pers, incorporated
in Cape Town in 1915 by a group of Afrikaans nationalists
that included Pieter Malan, Fred Dormehl and Willie Hofmeyr.
The group began as a printer and publisher of the Burger
daily newspaper (initially edited by DF Malan, later Prime
Minister of South Africa), expanded into magazine publishing
in 1916 and into book publishing in 1918. For most of
its history it was closely aligned with the business wing
of the National Party (Malan, Dormehl and Hofmeyr co-founded
what became the Sanlam financial services giant). National
Party leaders HF Verwoerd and PW Botha sat on the company's
board.
With the loosening of apartheid and advent of electronic
media in the 1980s (and low growth in print) Naspers expanded
its activities to incorporate pay-television and later
online media. In 1985 Naspers and other South African
media groups such as Perskor
formed an electronic pay-media business, M-Net.
M-Net was listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in 1990
before being split in 1993 into two companies. Its subscriber
management, signal distribution and cellular telephone
businesses, together with a holding in FilmNet (a pay-television
operator in Europe) became a new company called MultiChoice
Ltd (later named MIH Holdings) and in 1995 Richemont S.
and MultiChoice merged their global pay-television operations,
including the interest in FilmNet, MultiChoice's operations
in Africa, and Richemont's interest in Telepiu, into a
single venture called NetHold B.V., which MultiChoice
held through its subsidiary, MIH Limited.
During 1997 MIH Limited and Richemont merged most of NetHold's
assets with Canal+, the French based pay-television operator,
later part of the Vivendi Universal
conglomerate. MIH retained NetHold's African, Mediterranean
and Middle East pay-television businesses and acquired
49% of Irdeto Access from Canal+. MIH also received a
small interest in Canal+ (subsequently sold to fund expansion
plans such as purchase of the remainder of Irdeto Access
from Canal+, acquisition of a 31.1% interest in Thai pay-television
operator UBC and purchase of a 44.5% interest in OpenTV).
OpenTV and MIH were listed on Nasdaq in 1999. In 2002
MIH sold its stake in OpenTV to Liberty.
In 1997 MIH created internet service provider M-Web Holdings,
spun off as a listed entity on the JSE Securities Exchange
South Africa the following year. It was subsequently delisted:
Naspers now holds 100%.
In 2000 Naspers merged its existing private education
business with another leading South African private education
service provider, forming Educor Holdings Limited, which
is one of the leading private education providers in South
Africa. At the same time it reorganised its print media
businesses under the Media24 umbrella before absorbing
the minority interests in MIH Holdings and MIH Limited.
In 2001 the group acquired a 46.5% interest in Tencent
Holdings , operator of the QQ instant messaging platform
(China's counterpart to MSN Messenger). Tencent listed
on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004.
Naspers acquired an additional interest in M-Net and SuperSport,
which were delisted from the JSE Securities Exchange in
2004.
scope and shape
Naspers is structured as two units: print and electronic
media
Print media comprises two segments: Media24
and Book Publishing & Private Education.
Media24 is the largest South African publisher of magazines,
one of the largest publishers of newspapers and the largest
printer and distributor of magazines and related products
in Africa. Media24 operations include newspapers, magazines,
internet ventures, distribution companies and printing
works. The group boasts four dailies, two weeklies, three
Sunday newspapers and 37 community newspapers. Its magazine
division includes over 33 magazines. The internet arm
has leading brands in the news, motoring, property, health
and food categories.
Book publishing activities are conducted through Via Afrika
(formerly Nasboek). The private education business is
conducted through Educor.
The electronic media unit (accounting
for around 67.4% of total revenue) comprises pay-television,
internet and related technology activities. It centres
on MIH Holdings, which owns or operates pay-television
and internet subscriber platforms in Africa, Greece, Cyprus,
Thailand and China.
Media24
Media24 operations include newspapers, magazines,
internet ventures, distribution companies and printing
works. The group boasts four dailies, two weeklies, three
Sunday newspapers and 37 community newspapers. Its magazine
division includes over 33 magazines. The internet arm
has leading brands in the news, motoring, property, health
and food categories
Media24 Magazines is the dominant player in the South
African magazine industry, with over 60% of the country's
total circulation and more than 30 titles. Some of Media24's
magazines, such as YOU, Fairlady, Drum and True Love,
are sold across subsaharan Africa.
studies
For an introduction to the group's history see Johan Muller's
'Press Houses at War: A Brief History of Nasionale Pers
and Perskor' in The Press in South Africa (London:
John Currey 1987) edited by Keyan Tomaselli, Ruth Tomaselli
& Johan Muller
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