MAM
Former BBC DG Dyke could head Endemol
MUMBAI: Former BBC director-general Greg Dyke is believed to have been approached to head The Netherlands-based Endemol, which owns 500 different TV formats including Big Brother. Endemol is planning a ?1.75 billion flotation later this year.
While Dyke has refused to speak, a report in Sunday Telegraph indicates that Dyke is talking with Endemol’s Spanish owner, telecom giant Telefonica. Endemol is planning a listing on the London Stock Exchange. Telefonica is looking to offload the firm on to the stock market by early 2006. Dyke is already a multi-millionaire through his sale of LWT in the 1990s. If he joins he will get equity stake in Endemol.
Another report in The Guardian states that Dyke has made no secret of his desire for another big job. Dyke has not had a full-time job since the Lord Hutton report forced him to resign from the BBC. Endemol founder John de Mol, worth an estimated at ?1.2 billion, left the firm last year. He was replaced by Joaquim Agut Bonsfills, a former chief executive of General Electric in Europe.
