NewMedia Spark

NewMedia Spark (NMS) has almost reached the end of its battle to acquire GlobalNetFinancial.com, having faced a rival bid from AI Softw@re. It has also acquired over 50% of the shares in Spütz, the German brokering and venture capital firm. NMS was set up in October 1999 (4 October, page 4) by GlobalNetFinancial.com, a provider of online news and transaction execution services, and venture capitalist NewMedia Investors (NMI). Later, NMS achieved a listing on AIM and acquired the entire share capital of NMI (13 November 2000, page 10). It originally launched its bid for GlobalNetFinancial.com this summer (2 July 2001, page 11) and the threat from AI Softw@re was only removed at the end of August, when it decided neither to pursue its bid for GlobalNet, nor to present another acquisition proposal to the board of directors of the company.

NMS’s bid to acquire a majority stake in Spütz began in August 2001, when it agreed to acquire 24% of Spütz at a price of Euro 8.50 per share, a premium of 31% on the price at market close on 22 August 2001. The NewMedia Spark holding company has since announced that it controls 53.7% of the shares in Spütz, and will be recommending new supervisory board members shortly. Prior reports that Spütz was expecting a takeover bid from a German bank at a higher level than Spark’s tender offer were later shown to be false. NMS has also stated that it intends to maintain Spütz as a listed company.

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• UK / Ireland