EM.TV Buys KarstadtQuelle's Stake in DSF

The film and television rights company EM.TV said late Tuesday that is has acquired a stake held by KarstadtQuelle, the troubled German department store chain, in the cable sports television channel DSF for €27 million ($25 million). EM.TV said in a statement that it acquired a 49.9-percent stake in Sport Media Holding from KarstadtQuelle. Sport Media Holding itself controls 81.13 percent of DSF and Sport1, an online platform, with the remaining 18.87 percent held by investor Hans-Dieter Cleven. KarstadtQuelle had acquired the stake in May 2003 for just €11 million. The department store operator said it also sold its 10-percent stake in the TV shopping channel Home Shopping Europe to the US Home Shopping Network for €10 million. KarstadtQuelle has embarked on a massive sell-off of non-core activities as part of deep restructuring aimed at bringing the company back into profit. Only last week, it sold large parts of its logistics activities to the semi-privatised postal service Deutsche Post for more than €200 million.