Will the bell toll again for NDS?
Permira, the controlling shareholder in NDS, is in the early stages of an IPO that would see the News Corp technology company return to the stock market.
The private equity firm, which has held a 51% stake in NDS since August 2008, is reported by Sky News to have approached Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to run the process. The plans have no connection with the phonehacking crisis currently engulfing News Corp, which has retained a 49% holding.
NDS remains a key part of News Corp’s pay-TV strategy. Its technology is behind the recent launch of the Sky Go multiscreen product for BSkyB and Sky Deutschland, as well as the IP-delivered Sky Anytime+.
The company has more than 75 pay-TV customers worldwide, both inside and outside the News Corp group of companies. They include Comcast, DirecTV, Foxtel, Kabel Deutschland, Get, Kabel BW, Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland and BSkyB.
