11th April 2011

Blue Ant To Acquire GlassBox

glassbox televisionGlassBOX Television Inc. and Blue Ant Media Inc., controlled by media executive Michael MacMillan, announced today they have entered into an agreement for the acquisition by Blue Ant of a controlling interest in the Company. The announcement was made by GlassBOX Television co-CEOs Jeffrey Elliott and Raja Khanna.

Blue Ant Media will initially purchase 29.9% of GlassBOX Television Inc. from both existing security holders and Company treasury. In addition, an offer has been accepted for Blue Ant to purchase additional shares in GlassBOX from existing shareholders, which will result in a minimum ownership position of 75% which, in keeping with standard regulatory policies on ownership thresholds, requires CRTC approval. This acquisition will result in Blue Ant becoming a controlling shareholder of GlassBOX Television.

With this transaction, GlassBOX Television’s executive management will be restructured. Michael MacMillan will assume the new position of Executive Chairman and will actively participate in GlassBOX Television’s strategic growth for its digital and broadcast properties, which include Bite TV, AUX TV and the newly acquired Travel & Escape Channel. Raja Khanna will become CEO and Jeffrey Elliott will take on the new position of President, and Chief Strategy Officer.

“Michael MacMillan is internationally respected in our industry and we are delighted to have him take an active role in what we are building at GlassBOX. We are well positioned as an innovative independent media company and Michael’s involvement will allow us to accelerate our growth strategy,” said Jeffrey Elliott and Raja Khanna.

“GlassBOX Television is establishing its place as a developer of innovative cross platform channels in genres that resonate with today’s consumer,” said Michael MacMillan, CEO of Blue Ant Media Inc. “Jeffrey and Raja have built a company poised for growth and I look forward to being part of it.”

This transaction will also see Jay Switzer, the current Chair of GlassBOX’s Board of Directors, stepping down.

“It has been a privilege to serve as GlassBOX’s Chair as it established a meaningful place in our industry. Blue Ant’s new ownership position, together with Michael MacMillan taking an active role as Executive Chair, is the perfect next step in GlassBOX’s strategic growth”, said Jay Switzer.  Mr. Khanna added “it is an exciting time for our company and we would like to sincerely thank Jay for his support, guidance and relentless leadership”.

GlassBOX Television Inc. is an integrated media company that owns and operates Canadian specialty television networks AUX TV, focused on music and music culture and BITE TV, focused on satirical comedy shorts, sitcoms and movies, in addition to popular websites aux.tv and bite.ca. The company also recently acquired the specialty travel and leisure channel Travel & Escape.

The company’s digital publishing division operates broadband portals, blogs, mobile sites and applications while representing the Canadian online advertising inventory of several major international brands including AllMusic.com, AllHipHop.com, NME.com in addition to SPIKE.com, VH1.com, GAMETRAILERS.com, ATOM.com, TVLAND.com and LOGOTV.com.  GlassBOX’s wholly owned production company subsidiary produces over 150 hours of original television content each year.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 11th, 2011 at 9:21 am and is filed under Business News, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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