Time Warner to acquire Shed Media

Time Warner is to buy a controlling stake in Shed Media in a deal which values the Supernanny and Waterloo Road producer at £100 million, it has emerged.

According to reports, the US media giant will take a 55.75% stake in Shed Media, with the company's management team holding a 21.37% shareholding. The remaining stake will be split between a group of 27 key staff members.

Shed Media, which includes the Wall To Wall, Twenty Twenty and Ricochet firms, announced in June that it was in talks with Time Warner subsidiary Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Time Warner has offered Shed Media shareholders 115p for each share they own, which represents an around 36% premium on the firm's closing share price last night.

Warner Bros. said today that 73.3% of Shed shareholders have already backed the deal, including the 55.4% stake previously held by Shed's management team. The deal needs to gain the backing of 75% of shareholders before it can go through.

"The UK is an important TV market, with a robust, thriving local production sector," said Warner Bros. head of international television production Ronald Goes.

"The acquisition of Shed provides Warner Bros with immediate scale in UK production and complements our existing television production and distribution businesses."