BSkyB mulls bid for Spain's Digital Plus

Fri Jul 4, 2008 7:03am BST

[-] Text [+]

LONDON (Reuters) - Pay-TV firm BSkyB (BSY.L) is considering a bid of more than 2.5 billion euros (2 billion pounds) for Spanish pay-TV platform Digital Plus, the Financial Times said on Friday.

The newspaper quoted people familiar with the situation as saying there had been no decision to proceed, but that BSkyB's strong cash flow could allow it to finance an acquisition.

It said Grupo Prisa, Spain's largest media company, was expected to auction Digital Plus later this year, probably from around September, to repay debts.

Spanish groups Telefonica (TEF.MC) and ONO, France's Vivendi (VIV.PA) and French Telecom's (FTE.PA) Orange unit were also likely to be interested, it said.

BSkyB was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Mark Potter, editing by Will Waterman)

Credit headwind

News headlines speak of recovery, but financing is still a big problem in Germany. The dearth of credit to tide firms over is frustrating policymakers, who are blaming reluctant banks and there is little agreement on how best to increase lending flows. Full Article