Article
Cold water thrown on Dyke's ITV bid talk
Former BBC director general Greg Dyke is not in talks with Clive Hollick for an ITV takeover bid, according to informed sources.
Sources say Mr Dyke has not been in touch recently with Lord Hollick and the first he knew of the Labour peer's association with private equity fund KKR was when he "read about it in the newspapers".
Mr Dyke has long been associated with a bid for ITV but there was a widespread feeling that he had burned too many bridges politically after publishing his autobiography in which he repeatedly criticised the government over its handling of the Iraq war.
But speculation over a possible bid was renewed last autumn when it emerged he had been made a media adviser to venture capital group Apax, which had itself investigated a bid for the broadcaster almost two years ago.
A management team was put together involving Neil Blackley, who chairs the Apax media advisory board, but in the end the bid did not go ahead after one of the major ITV shareholders, Fidelity, indicated it would not entertain it at the time.
The Sky sales boss, Nick Milligan, and the now BBC chairman, Michael Grade, were also on board.
Lord Hollick, who is stepping down as chief executive of United Business Media in May, was linked to the Apax plans in June 2003, when it emerged he had met executives from the group about a possible takeover.
Shares in ITV rose slightly today as rumours continued to circulate. At 1.15pm they were up 0.9% to 116p, valuing the company at £4.75bn.
Some analysts have linked the upward movement in ITV's shares in recent days to the bid talk, prompted by Lord Hollick's remarks last week that buying ITV "would have a nice ring to it".
But others pointed to additional factors, such as better audience figures in January and a "catch-up" effect, with other European broadcasters already doing well this year.
ITV shares have underperformed in the 11 months since the stock debuted on the market.
Shares peaked at 150p early in 2004 but fell as low as 94.25p in August, before staying above the £1 mark - but only just - for most of the year.
The low level of the shares has led many observers to identify the company as a takeover target, though nothing is likely to happen in the short term while Charles Allen, the ITV chief executive, negotiates new licence deals and sells off non-core assets.
A spokesman for the broadcaster would not be drawn on the bid reports.
"We are not prepared to speculate about what another company may or may not be doing," he said. "We remain focused on driving growth."
Apax and KKR both declined to comment.
· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857
· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".