Chapter 397 Back to the starting point
"It looks like both the Crown Prince and Lady Camilla are very happy."
When the Crown Prince and Ms. Camilla completed their marriage registration and walked out, Bonnie whispered beside Barron.
Although they did not attend the wedding ceremony of the Crown Prince's "second marriage", the Queen and Prince Philip still attended when the two went to St. George's Church to take their vows.
Another point worth mentioning is that the late Princess Diana's title was Princess of Wales, because the crown prince's title was Prince of Wales.
After Camilla married the Crown Prince, her title was not Princess, but Duchess of Cornwall.
Just like some nobles hold more than one noble title, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also holds many titles including Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall.
In the end, Camilla did not get the title of princess. On the one hand, the royal family was dissatisfied with her, and on the other hand, the image of Princess Diana was too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. People often think of Diana first before the Princess of Wales. To avoid this, it is also Not always in her shadow.
Anyway, in the royal family's publicity, it was Ms. Camilla who respected the late Princess Diana and chose not to use the title "Princess of Wales".
Because His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's wedding was not celebrated too grandly, after attending the ceremony and congratulating each other in person, Barron and Bonnie returned to their residence.
Hearing the woman sigh, Barron held her in his arms and asked softly:
"what happened, Babe?"
"It's just that I have some emotions."
Bonnie said softly:
"I think about how the Crown Prince and Princess Diana seemed to others to be a perfect couple, but obviously, it seemed that he was happier when he was with Ms. Camilla. Marriage is sometimes obtained reluctantly, and it is not always possible. Can happiness continue, and how could Princess Diana know that this would be the case..."
"So just enjoy the present. No one can know exactly what the future will be like, but as long as you live up to the present, many things will be relieved."
After hearing Barron's words, Bonnie thought for a moment and said nothing more.
Sometimes she wants a promise, but then she thinks about it, is a promise really important?
…
After a period of negotiations, the BBC finally got what it wanted. They will inject 200 million pounds into Digital UK and obtain 10% of the newly issued shares of the digital TV platform operating company.
In this way, Digital UK's shareholding ratio was diluted from 51% to 45.9% by SEM Group, BBC's shareholding ratio increased from 34% to 40.6%, and ITV's shareholding ratio was reduced to 13.5%.
Although ITV has been strongly opposed to this negotiation process, the BBC reasons that Digital UK's FReeview platform needs to compete with other cable and satellite TV networks and must increase capital investment.
And they claimed that if ITV is willing, it can also participate in this capital injection...
However, ITV's operating conditions have been deteriorating in the past two years, and it is difficult to convince the board of directors to agree to invest funds in Digital UK - their funds are also extremely tight due to the reduction in advertising revenue.
So in the end the BBC was given the opportunity to inject holiday funding.
In order for SEM Group to agree to the BBC's increase in stock holdings this time, they also obtained certain compromises from the other party.
Prior to this capital injection, Digital Future Investment, a subsidiary of Caesars Fund, purchased 30% of the DailyVedio website held by Digital UK for US$20 million.
In this way, Digital Future Investment's shareholding in DailyVedio increased from 40% to 70%, leaving only 30% of the remaining shares of this website held by O2 Telecom.
In addition, DailyVedio.com has also reached a three-year agreement with the BBC. During this period, DailyVedio will provide video technology and streaming media services to the BBC website, and DailyVedio.com will display on its website, Get priority recommendations.
On the surface, it seems that DS Capital, the company behind SEM Group, gave up part of its interests in Digital UK and instead increased its investment in the Internet. In fact...
"We have communicated with ITV and put forward the proposal to merge Summit Media with ITV..."
Fergal Hayden, who has been promoted to CEO of SEM Group, told Barron:
"We are willing to make an overall acquisition of ITV in the form of cash and stocks. The other party has said that it will consider this proposal and needs the approval of the board of directors."
He also said:
"But judging from Michael Gray's reaction, he is still very interested in this merger."
Yes, in the face of ITV's current operating difficulties, SEM Group has the idea of acquiring this company, which was previously one of the three giants of British television.
Before the emergence of Summit Media, the structure of British television was roughly the three pillars of BBC, ITV and Sky.
It was only the emergence of Summit Media SDTV that broke this pattern. Because the BBC is supported by the state and its entertainment content does not play a major role, the impact is not too great; behind Sky TV is News Corporation, and they It is true that in terms of operations, it is more flexible and efficient, so although it has been affected, it has still developed.
Only ITV, as the largest commercial TV station in the UK, has a high degree of overlap with Summit Media in terms of content, especially in terms of variety shows, which has been the most affected.
This has also caused ITV's revenue to continue to decline in the past two years, and its current market value is similar to that of Summit Media...
Michael Gray is the newly appointed CEO of ITV. Interestingly, before that, he was the chairman of the BBC.
In fact, Michael Gray himself comes from a media family, and his uncle is the founder of ITV...
It can be said that he chose to switch from the position of chairman of the BBC to ITV, and there is no shortage of ideas to save this declining commercial TV station.
But it seems that after a deeper understanding of ITV's situation, he is not completely confident about it - or he thinks that the option of merging ITV with Summit Media is more promising than turning the tide. feasibility.
Of course, the most important thing is that SEM Group promised Michael Gray that if this merger is completed, Michael Gray will be able to take charge of the merged Summit Media and become the CEO of the new company.
At present, their contact with ITV is only with the other party's CEO Michael Gray, and they have not started any more negotiations.
Everything is still confidential, otherwise the BBC might not feel comfortable if it knew about it.
After all, they had just injected capital and increased their shareholding in Digital UK to 40.6%, which is very close to the 45.9% held by SEM Group.
But if SEM Group completes the acquisition of ITV, plus the 13.5% of Digital UK shares originally held by ITV, then SEM Group’s shareholding will be close to 60% again...
Doesn’t this return to the original point of the original 40-60 split?
