ProSieben investor General Atlantic opts for Czech PPF offer, shuns MFE, sources say

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By Alexander Hübner Financial investor General Atlantic has tendered its 2.4% stake in German media group ProSiebenSat.1 XETR:PSM to Czech investment company PPF, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.By taking PPF's cash offer of 7 euros ($8.17) per share for ProSieben, General Atlantic is going against the endorsement of ProSieben's management for a higher rival offer by MFE-MediaForEurope MIL:MFEA, which would be partly paid in MFE shares, indicating that MFE faces some difficulties in its bid for control over ProSieben.General Atlantic, PPF, MFE and ProSieben all declined to comment. ProSieben last week recommended that shareholders accept MFE's latest public takeover offer, abandoning its resistance to the Italian group, which is controlled by the Berlusconi family. ProSieben said at the time that MFE's sweetened offer, which values the company at more about 1.8 billion euros, showed a continued commitment from the Italians and could deliver 150 million euros in annual savings. PPF previously said it would not raise its offer in response to MFE's sweetened bid . MFE's pursuit of ProSieben is part of plans to create a European television company to challenge U.S. streaming giants such as Netflix NASDAQ:NFLX and Amazon Prime NASDAQ:AMZN. MFE's per-share bid is comprised of 4.48 euros in cash and 1.3 of its own shares, giving an implied value of around 8 euros per ProSieben share, based on Tuesday's close. PPF, the second-biggest investor in ProSieben, has stated it aims to double its ProSieben stake to 29.99% with its all-cash bid. The acceptance periods for both PPF's and MFE's offer end on Wednesday. ($1 = 0.8567 euros)

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