Product details

In February 2005, the top management of Fuji Television Network, Inc, one of Japan''s leading media conglomerates, was informed that a small information technology (IT) related company, Livedoor Co, had bought 35% of shares in Nippon Broadcasting System, Inc (NBS) with the help of Lehman Brothers, a US-based financial services firm. Fuji TV owned 12.39% of NBS shares and was in the process of acquiring it. What complicated the issue was that NBS''s main asset was its 22.5% stake in Fuji TV. The news came as a shock because Livedoor had acquired NBS''s shares through off-floor trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This was prohibited by the Securities Exchange Law, unless done for the purposes of a takeover bid. Fuji TV''s top management had to take effective measures to counter Livedoor''s move. This would be done with the assistance of the legal counsellors and planning department who studied which legal and effective actions Fuji TV could take against Livedoor, and calculated the corporate value of NBS using both American and Japanese methods.