Why would a telecommunications company want to buy some film studios? Because a frantic Eurocrat thinks they are the only people rich enough to thwart the ambitions of Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen. According to the London Standard, Europe’s Culture Commissioner Marcelino Oreja has been trying to persuade Germany’s Deutsche Telecom and Spain’s Telefonica to put in bid for PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. The studios have been put on the market by Seagram with a price tag of up to $750m – a figure that Oreja fears will deter European media giants like Canal Plus. Possibly Oreja has heard the word ‘convergence’ so often that he sees Europe’s telcos evolving into multi-media giants. But as they are pre-occupied with the ongoing drama of mergers and alliances gripping their own industry, they have told Oreja that the movie business is not for them. While Allen is known to have studied the prospectus for the sale, there is still no word as to whether he is even interested.
