News Broadcasting
Star makes open offer for 20 % stake in Balaji
MUMBAI: Following up on the announcement made last week that Star Group affiliate Asian Broadcasting FZ LLC (ABF) was to take a 25.1 per cent stake in Balaji Telefilms, an open offer has been made by ABF to the shareholders of the production major.
ABF is to make an open offer to Balaji shareholders for acquiring a 20 per cent stake in India’s leading television soap factory at a price of Rs 90 per share aggregating Rs 1173.8 million payable in cash.
The open offer is for 13,042,089 fully paid up equity shares of Rs 2 each, representing 20 per cent of the voting post issue equity capital of Balaji at a price of Rs 90 per share, fund manager to the offer DSP Merrill Lynch informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) today. The offer opens on 18 October 18 and closes on 16 November.
No other person is acting in concert with the ABF for the offer, DSP Merrill Lynch said, adding the offer was not conditional on any minimum level of acceptance by the share holders.
In a related development meanwhile, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has initiated an investigation into charges of insider trading against Balaji in the run up to the announcement of the deal with Star, Sebi officials confirmed to indiantelevision.com. Sebi officials admitted to having initiated the process of gathering data but declined to divulge any further developments.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
