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FRANKFURT, Germany, Jan 11, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Publisher Axel Springer AG, just rebuffed in an effort to buy the ProSiebenSat.1 broadcaster, is threatening to take its money out of Germany.
The nation's media watchdog agency, known as KEK, is blocking the deal for the big commercial media group over concerns that Axel Springer would end up with undue influence over public opinion, the Guardian said Wednesday.
Specifically, KEK said Axel Springer would control 42 percent of Germany's media outlets if it buys ProSiebenSat.1.
Mathias Dopfner, Springer's chief executive, blasted the agency's regulators Tuesday for imposing impossible conditions out of outdated misconceptions about the modern, global media landscape and of putting forward plans for a new oversight body that "would make (communist East Germany) appear like a liberal economic paradise."
Unless German regulatory attitudes change, Dopfner hinted, Axel Springer would spend its substantial acquisition budget outside of the nation.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
