N-TV in Germany hasn't exactly been a money-maker. I would make a guess that CNN just said they'd rather move on and sold at some kinda loss. German audiences are not exactly up on news networks and I doubt they improved on numbers over the past two years.
I beg to differ. Revenue and influence have driven the "partnership" from the beginning. From Variety, December 18th, 1992: According to Mark Rudolph, managing director of CNN Intl. Sales Ltd., the deal provides for the sharing of news-gathering efforts and costs, as well as for transponder space on Astra 1B. CNN currently holds the satellite spot, and will eventually turn it over to N-tv....
N-tv could benefit by building a new German web from scratch. CNN's London-based VP/managing editor Eason Jordon called the deal "a natural alliance: a moneymaker and a money-saver for us both." Mark Rudolph and Eason Jordan are not known to be some half-witted deal makers.
N-tv's shares have now been reshuffled: in addition to CNN's 27.5% stake, Time-Warner now has 19.61%; the East German Investment Trust 19.48%; CEO Karl-Ulrich Kuhlo has 8.01%, the Rothschild Group's La Savoisienne division 6.77 %, three members of the Nixdorf family hold 4.28% each; investment group Com 2i, 4.14%; and small investors the remaining 1.66%.
CNN will now occupy two as-yet unfilled seats on N-tv's board. Formal approval by German media authorities is pending, but no problems with the greenlightgreenlight are anticipated.
Cost-sharing in foreign media IS a money maker. This was not small potatoes.