User blog:Ootwar/Laserium Holdings drops a bomb following the investment

February 4th, 2017 - MANCHESTER

Laserium Holdings has announced many shocking announcements, one after another, within only 5 hours. First, Laserium announced the cancellation of acquisitions of the following assets:
 * Albavisión, Imagine Media Channels Ltd, Bang Bang, Çufo, The Fishing & Hunting Channel, DoQ, True Corp., SpoTV, Nimbus Communications, musicAL, DigitAlb Stinet, DigitAlb Explorer Shkencë, Histori & Natyra and Geo TV (Pakistan)
 * Most of Solar Entertainment's cable television channels, which are CT, Jack TV, Basketball TV and Shop TV
 * Sport 5, Digital Sports, Radio Show Limited Company and Premier Media SARL
 * Thunderbird Films, which includes the following:
 * Reunion Pictures, Atomic Cartoons, Soda Pictures, Great Pacific Media and 50% of Sea to Sky Entertainment
 * MNC Channels - Lifestyle Group, which include the following:
 * Soccer Channel, Auto & Gadget, Home & Living, Games Channel, Health & Beauty, Food & Travel, Comedy Channel (Indonesia), Drama Channel, MNC Muslim, MNC Lifestyle, MNC Fashion, MNC Infotainment, Movie Channel, MNC Shop, Music Channel and MNC Entertainment
 * Nova Broadcasting Group, Modern Times Group Baltics, 1+1 Media Group, Sulake, Pro Plus, BTV Media Group, ProTV S.A., Telewizja Puls, Medialaan, Heaven Music, Dream TV, Transmedia Communications SA, Nautical Channel Limited, Motors TV S.A., StarLightMedia, Ethnic Channels Group Canada, BRB Internacional, Screen21 and Genoma Animation, Arena Racing Company,Boxing Channel Media
 * TVA Group channels AddikTV, Canal Indigo, LCN, Casa, MOI&cie and Yoopa
 * Slovak Sport.TV
 * Prime (Flanders) (acquisition supposedly going to be done through Cinecorn Group SA and Laserium-GBC Networks)
 * Wild TV, Tennis Channel, Lig TV and Turkmax Gurme
 * Level 3 Post, Iloura, Flagstaff, Beast, Editpool (from Deluxe Entertainment Services)
 * Shinchosha Publishing
 * Global New Age Media Inc
 * Multi Channel Developers, Fuel TV Global S.A.R.L., Ethnic Channels Group and Sun TV Network
 * Sun Group radio, print media and sports assets
 * MGM Domestic Television Distribution/This TV, The Works, MGM Music, MGM On Stage, 49% and the controlling role of MGM Interactive Productions and MGM Interactive and 49% of MGM Domestic TV Networks/MGM HD Productions
 * An ownership of Comet from Sinclair Networks
 * Los Angeles Times Group (Los Angeles Times, Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent, Coastline Pilot, Burbank Leader, Glendale News Press, La Canada Valley Sun, SouthtownStar, Naperville Sun, Elgin Courier-News, Aurora Beacon, Lake County News-Sun, The Capital, Maryland Gazette, Bowie Blade, Crofton-West County Gazette, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, Carroll County Times, Sun-Sentinel, El Sentinel del Sur de la Florida, Orlando Sentinel/El Sentinel, The Hartford Courant, The Advocate, Greenwich Time, The Morning Call, Daily Press, The Virginia Gazette)
 * DEN Networks
 * Katz Networks
 * Pogo brodcasting centers and programming in Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan
 * Relativity Sports and Home Entertainment
 * 98% of both Telenet and Ziggo
 * Seeker Networks (with Animalist and Revision3) and SourceFed Studios (deal will not include DNews) - due to them merging into another group owned by Discovery Communications
 * MRA Media Group's original magazines (Bali & Beyond, Spice!, Trax and Hair Ideas)
 * B4U, AB Group, AlphaTV, MAD TV, Canal Alpha, Kontra Media SWF and Kontra Channel SA
 * NOVA Greece, NOVA Cyprus and C More
 * IP Entertainment
 * SFR Media and Portugal Telecom Group
 * All3Media

It is a long list, so we are not wondering why most people are shocked. Second, Laserium Entertainment announced to sell 48% of AMC Networks International it used to own, back to AMC Networks. Lastecom Group and UPC also announced that a large-scale merger between Lastecom and UPC operations in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and Slovakia with e-fon is now cancelled. Despite that, UPC owner Liberty Global and Lastecom Group announced to keep on working together "strong as one".

Also, Laserium Entertainment, Astro All Asia Networks, Network 18 Group, Corus Entertainment, C&J E&M, Abu Dhabi Media, Rogers Media, RTÉ and Ole Communications announced that the Astro 18 Networks International company was going to get closed down before managing to launch any channels.

PrimeUP, a channel planned to be created after a merger of Max UP (for blockbuster movies) and Maxprime (for male audience) through a joint venture with HBO Latin America Group, was also closed without launching.

Marathon Media, co-owned with Zodiak Media, Lagarade Active and TF1 Group, closed down offices in France, Germany and UK. The company was going to start licensing and producing content for children and teenagers alike. However, this operation was split into Zodiak Kids Studios and Suius M&E Studios. DigitAlb Motion Pictures, a joint venture with DigitAlb, also closed down.

A joint venture with Princess Cruises was also planned, but closed down this month.

The revivals of Mobil Showcase, Paramount TV Service, Channel America, MGM/UA Premiere Network, Universal Pictures Debut Network, Star Network, Premier Program Service, Kraft Golden Showcase, MGM Family Network, Overmyer Network, NTA Film Network, Sports Network, Hughes TV, SFM Holiday Network and Mizlou, as part of the Operation Prime Time revival, were cancelled mid-production, while the OPT revival still continuing production.

NHK America and RAI America also closed down.

All of this was because in February 2017, Laserium Holdings offered its digital media division to a combined consortium of investors, in exhange of 100% of all Mutual Film Company, a new planned, unnamed MCN company and Harmony Cube. However, that consortium decided to give the two companies away and only invest in Laserium Digital Media.

The holding company soon received a seventy-billion-dollar investment from Samsung, Microsoft, Huawei, Intel, Dell, Mitsubishi, 3M, IBM, Oracle, HP, SAP, Nippon Television, Tokuma Shoten, Dolby, Cisco, Kadokawa, Hakuhodo, UGC, Toho Towa, Marubeni, Tohokushinsha Film, VAP, Burda GmbH, Bauer Media, Tele Munchen Gruppe, Entertainment One, BBC, Constantin Medien, Arab Media Group, Bandai Namco, Konami, Capcom, Chernin Group, AwesomenessTV (Verizon/Hearst and DreamWorks), Google, Vice Media, A+E Networks, Tata Group, Endemol Shine Group and Dentsu. This caused VHMP to discontinue plans to launch Complex Networks International (Middle East, Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia) with Laserium Entertainment, Vodafone to merge its Lastecom/Vodafone joint venture and A+E/Vice to merge their planned MCN joint venture into Laserium Holdings, while most of the investors got out of their joint ventures.

Later on, three new joint ventures were merged into Laserium Digital Media, after Antenna Group with Disney Channels Worldwide, Viva Entertainment, American Media, Haymarket Group and Lifetime Entertainment Services invested $20 million in Laserium Digital Media.

This made Laserium Holdings consider restructing and plan on discontinuing most of the projects in progress at that moment.