Tuesday, January 6, 2009

TV Guide Deal Gets Shuffled

The deal to sell the remaining parts of former Pasadena-based firm Gemstar-TV Guide has just been shuffled by Gemstar's buyer, Macrovision. Macrovision said yesterday that it will sell TV Guide Network and TV Guide Online, the programming guide components of the Gemstar-TV Guide business, to studio Lionsgate, rather than a consortium of private equity buyers. Macrovision had originally said in December that it would sell the TV Guide channels--which include online and interactive programming guide services for set top boxes and TVs--to Allen Shapiro and One Equity Partners. The new deal is worth $255M. Macrovision said the change would improve the probability and timing of closing the transaction. The deal to sell TV Guide Network and its associated properties comes with a requirement that the buyer continue to embed the programming codes from Macrovision/Gemstar within the programming guides. Macrovision is based in Santa Clara.

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