Hogan Lovells announced today that it advised News Corporation (News Corp) in connection with News Corp’s entry into a definitive agreement with ESPN to acquire ESPN’s fifty percent equity interest in ESPN STAR Sports (ESS), giving News Corp full ownership of ESS. With the acquisition, News Corp furthers its commitment to deliver sports programming to consumers across the globe, particularly in Asian emerging markets.

ESS operates 28 broadcast networks in 24 Asian countries.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals, and ESS will continue to be jointly managed by the two companies until the acquisition is finalized.

The Hogan Lovells team advising News Corp was led jointly by Stephen Kay (partner, Los Angeles) and Alex Johnson (partner, New York), along with Robert Efthimos (associate, Los Angeles) and Lorig Kalaydjian (associate, Los Angeles). Assisting the transaction on regulatory and antitrust issues were Catriona Hatton (partner, Brussels), Adrian Emch (counsel, Beijing), and David Cardwell (senior associate, Brussels). Corporate matters in Asia were handled by Stephanie Keen (partner, Singapore), Jun Wei (partner, Beijing), Andrew McGinty (partner, Shanghai), Roy Zou (partner, Beijing), Kurt Tiam (senior associate, Beijing), Yingzi “Sherry” Gong (senior associate, Beijing), and Sarah Zhang (associate, Beijing). The intellectual property team includes Gabriela Kennedy (partner, Hong Kong) and Heidi Gleeson (associate, Hong Kong). Finally, tax matters were handled by Ira Sheinfeld (partner, New York) and Jeffrey Tolin (partner, New York).

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