NOVEMBER 10, 2000

How much more can EM.TV take?

AFTER losing 8% of its value on Wednesday, EM.TV took a further hit on Thursday on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt stock exchange with the shares dropping another 6.7% during the day to finish up at 29.03 Euros ($24.67). This is the lowest value the shares have closed at although this was up one Euro from the low of the day's trading at 28.12 Euros ($24). The continuing slide in share price means that the value of the company is now under $3bn for the first time and EM.TV boss Thomas Haffa's dream of selling his shareholding in Bernie Ecclestone's F1 group for $2bn is looking increasingly unlikely to happen.

The pressure is mounting on Haffa to do an early deal to get rid of the F1 shareholding. Shareholder confidence in EM.TV was dented by the investment which did not really fit in with EM.TV's core business of merchandising cartoon characters and selling TV shows. Haffa's hopes that he would be able to make a profit on the deal (which was concluded last Spring when EM.TV shares were worth 88 Euros) are fading and it is possible that he will settle for a much lower price just to stabilize the company and rebuild the share price. This would avoid the situation in which the company now looks to be worth less than the value of its assets. Even though Haffa controls the majority of the shares the company is still in danger of a hostile takeover bid, either by the car companies who want to take over Haffa's shares in F1 or to a media company which wants to get control of his media assets, which include an impressive film and cartoon library.