News Corporation and companies affiliated with funds advised by Permira Advisers LLP have made a bid to buy all of the shares of NDS Group plc that News Corp. doesn’t already own and have NDS cease to be publicly traded. If the offer is endorsed by a special committee of NDS’ independent directors, News Corp. would end up owning 49% of NDS and the Permira affiliates 51%. News Corp. currently owns 72% of the equity and 96% of the voting power of NDS. The offer to NDS shareholders is $60 for each NDS American Depositary Share, a premium of 27.1% over the pre-bid closing price. NDS supplies open end-to-end digital technology and services to pay-television platform operators and content providers.
