SBS Broadcasting confirmed recent market rumors and announced this morning that it was accepting an unsolicited 46 Euro ($56) buyout offer from a European private equity firm. Below please find my comments as I was conducting my analysis beginning with my thoughts prior to the open of trading and finishing up with my conclusions after listening to management discuss the deal on a conference call. The bottom line is that I think there is hope for a higher bid and near-term downside is minimal. Therefore, I plan to hold all client positions for now to see if another bidder emerges….

Pre-Open and Pre-Conference Call Comments:
SBS Broadcasting (SBTV) has agreed to be bought for 46 Euros by European buyout firm Permira and U.S. buyout firm KKR. The transaction is expected to close in November 2005 and is priced in Euros. At today’s exchange rate, the deal works out to about $56 per share.
As outlined last week, this is not a surprising development but I think the price is too low. Unfortunately, Liberty Global, which owns about 20% of SBTV shares has agreed to the deal. Ideally, Liberty would have been the agitator for a higher price. I don