US businessman Ken Peterson’s Hibernia Media division of Hibernia Atlantic has acquired the TeliaSoneria MediaConnect business spanning 13 countries in Europe and North America for an undisclosed sum. Peterson’s Columbia Ventures Corporation (CVC) owns 100pc of Magnet and owns a majority share of Hibernia Atlantic.
The acquisition expands Hibernia Media’s European footprint, which already includes London, Dublin and Brussels, into new markets such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Madrid, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Riga, Stockholm, Tallinn, Vienna, and Vilnius.
The newly expanded Hibernia Media network will provide the world’s leading media companies with a video-enabled fibre network connecting 17 European markets via Hibernia’s extensive US network footprint.
The Hibernia Atlantic business is majority owned by US businessman Ken Peterson, whose Columbia Ventures vehicle also owns broadband provider Magnet.
In 2009, the €30m ‘Project Kelvin’ fibre cable that links Ireland to 24,000km of undersea cable linking Ireland with the US, Canada and UK came ashore at Portrush, Co Antrim. The transatlantic and terrestrial cable network offers more than 70 points of presence throughout Ireland, Canada, the US, the UK and mainland Europe.
The fibre-optic transatlantic cable system owned by Hibernia was originally laid by 360 Networks at a cost of €900 million.
It was acquired by Ken Peterson’s Columbia Ventures in 2002 for a fraction of that sum at just US$18 million after 360 Networks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.
The integrated network is available immediately for full-time connections and pre-scheduled live video events. Hibernia Media’s Occasional Use live feed services will be available across the former TeliaSonera media network in Europe starting fourth quarter 2012.
Frame Rate and Standards conversion can be accommodated for transatlantic NTSC, PAL and HD video signals. The new network will be managed from Hibernia Media’s 24/7 world-class Television Operations Center (TOC) in Baltimore, MD.
