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Weekly Lists
February 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:TMT
MTG confirms sale of Bulgaria’s Nova Group to Petr Kellner
Swedish Modern Times Group (MTG) confirmed on February 19 that it has signed a deal with Petr Kellner, Central Europe’s richest man, on the sale of a 95% stake in its Bulgarian company Nova Broadcasting Group for €185mn.
The deal will give Kellner significant influence on the Bulgarian media market as Nova is the leader in terms of turnover.
The Swedish company has been trying to sell its Bulgarian business for more than a year for some €100mn, but until now it failed to find an appropriate buyer. It entered the Bulgarian market in 2007, acquiring the Diema TV channels. A year later, it bought Nova TV for €620mn.
The deal comes amid a shakeout in the Bulgarian television broadcasting sector: fellow broadcaster BiTV was sold to an unknown buyer earlier in February, while bTV has reportedly been put up for sale.
Russian state-owned telecoms company Rostelecom may be handed a monopoly over state software provision, according to the Ministry of Communications said local reports on February 21.
The ministry is set to submit a proposal to the Duma that would grant Rostelecom a monopoly on providing office software to
state organs. That's according to the minutes of a meeting of the Government Commission on the Use of IT to Improve the Quality of Life - the proposal is due by March 15th.
Should the proposal be accepted and implemented, it would mark
a further victory for Rostelecom, which already has a monopoly on communications services for federal organs, netting up to RUB15bn ($18mn) from that relationship in 2016.
Blockchain and cryptocurrency companies in Croatia have launched a self-regulator for the industry, which started work on February 17.
The launch of the Croatian Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Association (UBIK) comes amid increasing use of cryptocurrencies in the region and worldwide. It follows reports of similar moves in Japan and the UK.
UBIK’s aim is to create a crypto community, educate the public and develop regulation in Croatia, the organisation said in a statement. This follows “years of enthusiastic work on the creation of a crypto- community in Zagreb and Croatia” it added, though initial efforts did not lead to concrete steps towards setting up an industry regulator.
Russian state-owned telecoms company Rostelecom to get monopoly over state software provision
Blockchain industry self-regulator launches in Croatia