Media Timeline: 2006-

2006

Viacom spins off broadcast, themepark, publishing and some cable tv interests as CBS Corporation

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Takafumi Horie arrested for fraud

Disney buys Pixar for US$7.4bn

CBS and Warner Brothers Entertainment announcement that UPN and WB networks would combine to form youth-oriented CW network

Axel Springer abandons ProSiebenSat deal

Time Warner sells book publishing division (inc Warner Books and Little, Brown) to Lagardere for US$537.5m

InterMedia buys Thomas Nelson for US$473m

Disney announces agreement to merge its ABC Radio stations with Citadel in US$2.7bn deal

DMGT abandons plan to sell regional newspaper chain

Lagardere agrees to buy 20% of Vivendi Universal's French pay-TV business Canal Plus in exchange for its 34% stake in CanalSatellite and €525m

AT&T bids US$67bn for BellSouth

NBC Universal agrees to buy iVillage for around US$600m

VNU agrees to US$8.9bn takeover offer by Blackstone, KKR, Lee, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman consortium

John Fairfax buys Trade Me for $625m

Knight Ridder agrees to sell itself for US$4.5bn to McClatchy

Hearst agrees to acquire 20% stake in Fitch Group for US$592m

Softbank agrees to buy Vodafone's Japanese mobile-phone unit for US$15.4bn

NTL buys Virgin Mobile Holdings for US$1.67bn

Media General agrees to buy four NBC television stations (inc WNCN Raleigh) for US$600m

Willis Stein & Partners sells Baker & Taylor to Castle Harlan for US$455m

Time Warner buys Liberty Media's 50% in Court TV joint venture for US$735m

GBL agrees to sell its 25.1% stake in Bertelsmann back to Bertelsmann for €4.5bn

McClatchy announces that it will sell San Jose Mercury News and The Contra Costa Times to MediaNews and partnership that includes Gannett and Stephens Group

McClatchy announces that Pioneer Press in St Paul and Herald in Monterey County will be sold to Hearst

McClatchy announces sale of Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News to Philadelphia Media Holdings for US$562m

ITV sells stake in Seven Network

EMAP agrees to sell EMAP France to Berlusconi's Mondadori for £380m

Univision acquired by Saban consortium?

Orkla announces sale of newspaper operations to Mecom for €900m

European Court of First Instance annulls European Commission's approval of 2004 merger between Sony Music and BMG

Vivendi agrees to buy BMG Music Publishing for €1.63bn

Time Warner sells AOL France's internet access business to Neuf Cegetel for €288m

Apax Partners buys UK B2B publisher Incisive Media for £199m

Barclays sell handbag.com to Hearst for £22m

Google Inc pays $US1.65bn for YouTube

Air America network files for bankruptcy

US Equity buys Penton Media from Abry Partners for US$530m

Reuters agrees to sell its 50% in Factiva to Dow Jones for US$160m

Packer announces plan to transfer media operations to PBL Media joint venture with CVC Asia Pacific

Clear Channel agrees to be bought for US$18.7bn by Thomas H Lee Partners and Bain Capital consortium

Wiley agrees to acquire Blackwell Publishing for £572m

KKR and Seven form Seven Media Group

Komsomolskaya Pravda bought by Gazprom (owner of Izvestia) for US$70m

UK Press Gazette folds

Houghton Mifflin acquired by Riverdeep for US$3.36bn (inc debt)

Fairfax acquires Rural Press

News Corp and Liberty Media announce US$11bn swap

Seminoles buy Hard Rock for US$965m

VNU sells European business magazines in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium to 3i for €320m

Texas Pacific and Apollo Management agree to buy Harrah's Entertainment for US$16.7bn