MTG makes digital acquisition in CEE

MTG has inked a deal for a controlling share of Bulgarian digital conglomerate Darik News and Net info.

The pan-European broadcast group has agreed to buy a 70% share of the Bulgarian business for an undisclosed sum.

The agreement will give MTG a range of digital assets in the country including the dariknews.bg news website, the gong.bg sport news site and the vremeto.bg and sinoptik.bg weather sites.

The deal also included the abv.bg email platform, vbox7.com video clip site and edna.bg entertainment news destination.

Darik generated revenues of €4.2 million (US$5.6 million) and was profitable for the full year 2012, MTG said.

The deal needs regulatory approval after which MTG plans to fold the assets into its Bulgarian free TV operations, which are part of the Group’s Free-TV Emerging Markets business.

The company said the acquisition is part of its strategy to drive digital growth under the MTGx banner.

Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, president and CEO of MTG (pictured), said the deal was a milestine in effort to expand its presence in Bulgaria: “It significantly expands our overall customer proposition in Bulgaria, and will enable us to leverage our content in new and innovative ways across a number of popular platforms, to reach more people than ever before with the entertainment of their choice,” he said. “We will also be able to extend our advertising proposition and reach, and to offer advertisers more extensive and finely tuned products than ever before.”