YooMedia pays £28m for digital TV groups

Yoomedia, the aim-listed media company which owns Dateline, announced yesterday that the company was acquiring Digital Interactive Television Group (DITG) and The Gaming Channel (TGC) in a deal valued at £28m.

YooMedia, whose chief executive David Docherty was formerly the head of new media services at the BBC, is paying with £10m in cash and 120 million new YooMedia shares.

The deal brings together some big names in interactive media. Apart from YooMedia's Mr Docherty, DITG is chaired by John Swingewood, the former head of new media at BSkyB and BT. Its largest shareholder is Peter Wilkinson, the man behind Freeserve. Mr Swingewood owns 14 per cent of DITG shares, valued at £2m, and Mr Wilkinson owns 46 per cent, valued at £6.65m.

Evolution Securities has underwritten a placing of 166 million new YooMedia shares at 15p each, after they were suspended at 23p on 10 November. The surplus will be used to fund the ongoing development of technology and marketing.

DITG provides software sales and support. TGC provides fixed-odds gambling and casino channels on ITV and Sky. Mr Docherty said: "This deal gives us significant scale and Sky don't seem to want to be anywhere but their own platform. We will continue to collaborate and compete with them."