Major media groups including Discovery Communications and Sky Italia are understood to be in the running for Telecom Italia Media.
However, Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset has confirmed it has withdrawn from the race to pick up the telco’s content subsidiary and its La7 TV channel.
A deadline of September 24 has been set for non-binding offers with some reports suggesting as many as a dozen companies are in the frame to purchase the unit from the indebted company.
Hutchison Whampoa, which runs mobile network 3 Italia, is also a potential purchaser, as is Cairo Communications, the Italian media group that handles Telecom Italia Media’s airtime sales and Clessidra, an Italian private equity group.
Meanwhile, a Sky Italia spokesperson stated that the company’s CEO Andrea Zappia clarified in June that Sky’s expression of interest was limited to gaining access to Telecom Italia Media’s financial data and that it had no intention of buying the company.
