Media Timeline: 2001-2005
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
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
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
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
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
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.