2001 to 2005

This chronology covers -

• 2001
• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2005

     2001

EU Directive on Copyright & Related Rights In The Information Society

Elsevier swallows Harcourt General

Emap sells US arm to Primedia for US$515m

over 20 million subscribers on DoCoMo's i-mode network

Loews Cineplex (inc Sony-Loews) acquired by Onex and Oaktree Capital Management after financial crisis

Telemedia sells eastern Canadian radio stations to Astral Media for C$255m

Pearson-controlled Economist group sells Journal of Commerce Group

Berlusconi becomes Italy's Prime Minister again

Clear buys Ackerley Group radio stations for US$850m

Telemedia sells 60 radio stations to Standard

Vivendi buys US publisher Houghton Mifflin for US$1.7bn

Forstmann Little buys Citadel for US$2bn

Wiley buys Hungry Minds from IDG for US$182m

     2002

Kirch group slides into bankruptcy

Donrey becomes Stephens Media Group

Tucows sells eLibrary

Lamar buys American Outdoor Advertising from Landmark

Compagnie des Alpes acquires Parc Astérix

Univision buys Hispanic Broadcasting for US$3.5bn

Vivendi announces change of direction, with large-scale asset sales

SMG sells Herald newspapers (inc Glasgow Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times) to Gannett for £216m

Vivendi sells Houghton Mifflin to Thomas H Lee consortium for US$1.66bn

Adelphia goes bankrupt

Cinven and Candover buy Kluwer Academic Publishers from Wolters Kluwer

Vivendi sells Groupe Express-Expansion (inc l'Express) and Groupe l'Etudiant to Hersant's Socpresse for €200m

     2003

News Corp buys Hughes Electronics (DirectTV)

News sells INL stake to Fairfax

Grundig goes into receivership

merger Bonnier Radio AB and SBS radio arm to create SBS Radio AB

consortium led by Karstadt-Quelle buys Kirch's DSF sports tv station

Dun & Bradstreet buys Hoovers for US$119m

MBO of Riverdeep

Softbank sells Aozora Bank stake

Vivendio sells Comareg to Hersant's France Antilles group for €135m

WPP successfully bids for Cordiant

Vivendi spins off US film, cable tv and theme park interests to joint venture with NBC-parent GE

private equity group HgCapital buys Boosey & Hawkes for £75m

UK government approves merger of Carlton and Granada

O'Reilly's INM sells off stake in Lusomundo Media

Conrad Black resigns as Hollinger International chief executive

Time Warner sells records and music publishing arm, which becomes Warner Music

Cinven and Candover acquire BertelsmannSpringer for €1.05bn

     2004

BertelsmannSpringer (inc Kluwer Academic Publishers) relaunched as Springer Science+Business Media

Barclay brothers bid for Black's stake in Hollinger

Australia-US Free Trade Agreement

Blackstone buys Cine UK, acquires UK assets of UGC (408 screens in 42 cinemas)

Comcast makes unsuccessful US$54bn hostile takeover bid for Disney

Viacom spins off its 81.5% stake in Blockbuster

DirecTV sells 80.5% stake in PanAmSat to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for US$4.3bn

Lagardere sells Editis publishing interests to Wendel Investissement

Apax takes majority stake in PCM

Reg Grundy sells RG Capital radio network, which becomes Macquarie Media

Barclays gain control of Hollinger International's UK titles

Seven buys Handbury family's Murdoch Magazines

TARBS ceases trading

Clarity buys San Francisco Examiner for est. US$20m

Hachette buys Hodder Headline publishing from WH Smith for £223m

T&F Informa formed through merger of Informa and Taylor & Francis

WPP buys GreyGlobal

Sony consortium confirms in principle agreement to acquire MGM for US$5bn

Hollinger International sells Jerusalem Post

IBM sells personal computer division to Lenovo

LexisNexis acquires Seisint for US$775m

Pearson announces agreement to sell Recoletos for €743m

Washington Post buys Microsoft's Slate

SixFlags sells European theme parks to Palamon Capital Partners for US$200m

     2005

Corbis buys Zefa image licensing group for US$96m

Lee Enterprises announces plan to acquire Pulitzer newspaper operations for US$1.46bn

1909 cinema screens in Australia

AT&T agrees to US$16bn takeover by SBC Communications

MCI acquired by Verizon

New York Times buys About.com from Primedia for US$410m

Livedoor seeks control of Nippon Broadcasting

Meredith buys Gruner + Jahr USA consumer titles (inc Family Circle, Parents, Child and Fitness) for US$350m

T&F Informa buys IIR for US$1.4bn

Emap acquires Scottish Radio Holdings

US Supreme Court rules that distributors of file-swapping software can be held liable for copyright infringement

VNU abandons US$6.9bn takeover of IMS Health

Australian Federal Court finds site and ISP guilty of copyright infringement through links to sites that had infringing sound recordings

UBM sells its 35% stake in UK Channel Five Television to RTL for £247m

Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba & Uruguay launch Telesur network

CAFTA

Blackstone acquires Merlin Entertainment for US$187m

merger of Capital Radio and GWR in UK as GCap Media

Axel Springer announces €2.5bn deal for control of ProSiebenSat, Germany's dominant commercial broadcaster

SBS Broadcasting announces acquisition by Permira and KKR

planned US$1bn merger between DreamWorks SKG and NBC Universal founders

Dreamworks SKG acquired by Viacom

BCE sells 48.5% of Bell Globemedia for C$1.3bn to Torstar, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Thomson family's Woodbridge

Google agrees to buy 5% of AOL for US$1bn

NBC Universal announces deal to acquire majority control of MSNBC from Microsoft

Rank sells Deluxe film processing arm to MacAndrews & Forbes for £437m

Clear Channel spins off live entertainment unit (SFX/Clear Channel Entertainment) as Live Nation

Cumulus Media Partners LLC pays US$1.2bn for radio broadcast arm of Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff

Blackstone acquires Legoland for US$446m

Dubai International Capital buys Tussauds for £800m from Charterhouse Capital Partners




     next page  (2006 - )