ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG

ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG is a European media conglomerate, operating commercial television, premium pay channels, radio stations and related print businesses. It was formed on October 2nd 2000 by merger of German TV broadcasters ProSieben Media AG and Sat.1 SatellitenFernsehen GmbH. Through takeover of SBS Broadcasting Group on June 27th 2007 it now has operations in 13 European countries.

The headquarters are located in Unterföhring/Munich.

ProSiebenSat.1 was bought by the American media tycoon Haim Saban for approximately $700 million. After Saban lost interest in the company because the programs could not compete with Bertelsmann's channels RTL, Vox, and Super RTL, he started an auction to sell the company. Possible bidders were Axel Springer AG, Dogan Group of Turkey, Permira/Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and some others like Goldman Sachs/APEX. The Axel Springer AG's bid was rejected by a federal competition commission, "Bundeskartellamt", because of the influence of Springer in Germany's media who owns already the nations most selling tabloid BILD and the newspaper Die Welt. On December 14, 2006, Germany's Handelsblatt reported that the winner of the bid was the consortium of Permira/KKR. A possible bidder for the company was Silvio Berlusconi, owner of Mediaset and Italian prime minister. On June 27, 2007, ProSieben bought SBS Broadcasting for the total sum of €3.3 billion. SBS was also owned by Permira/KKR.