By Ingrid Bachmann
President Sebastián Piñera agreed to sell his TV channel Chilevisión to local private equity investors Linzor Capital for $130 million, Dow Jones reports, citing Chilean news reports. (See Spanish version of this post.)
During his campaign, Piñera had promised he would divest of various business holdings, including Chilevisión, and since he took office March 11 he has faced strong pressures to keep his word.
According to the Associated Press, the Clarín media group of Argentina offered $10 million more than the local fund, but Piñera thought such a sale might generate conflicts with the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who has a tense relationship with the media company.
The president bought the channel in 2005 for around $24 million. After five years under his management, the station is now one of the top two in the country in both profits and ratings, La Tercera adds.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
