A whopping 24 million

What both parties denied until Sunday and then signed on Monday was made public the next day: Zurich-based Tamedia is acquiring Basel's city radio station Basilisk and LH-Holding. This is the first painful home defeat for the Basler Mediengruppe (BM), which only recently went into the regional league with the sale of Jean Frey AG. The era of the newly appointed Tamedia CEO Martin Kall begins with a bang: the crown jewel of LH-Holding, which has also been taken over 100 percent, is called Medag AG and markets Tele Basel as well as Basilisk. However, Tamedia spokesman Peter Hartmeier was just as reluctant to comment on this strategic added value and any synergy effects with Belcom as he was on the purchase price of just under CHF 24 million, which BM CEO Beat Meyer described as "horrendous and therefore unacceptable to us". This figure sounds familiar in connection with private radio stations, which is why Roger Schawinski promptly quips on request that "Basilisk Managing Director Christian Heeb copied it from me". Schawinski is probably alluding to the time when they founded Radio 24 together - and not to the CHF 92 million that Tamedia paid for its Belcom AG last fall (oc).