Core hires FremantleMedia M&A chief

Core Media is stepping up its international expansion, poaching FremantleMedia’s head of mergers and acquisitions – a former News Corp exec who co-founded MLJ Partners.

The company has hired Maureen Kerr as director of business strategy and acquisitions at Core Media UK, the overseas arm it established earlier this year under former ITV programming chief Simon Shaps.

Kerr joins Shaps and his recently appointed former ITV colleague Clare Thompson at the division’s London office after more than three years with FremantleMedia.

“Maureen has a highly successful track record and extensive international experience in building media businesses. We look forward to working with her on continuing to grow Core’s presence internationally,” said Shaps.

Kerr, who prior to FremantleMedia was an investment and project advisor to the European board of News Corp, having previously been head of strategy and acquisitions at UBM, said she was “looking forward to being at the forefront of Core’s ambitions internationally.”

She’s co-founder and still a partner at international media M&A specialist MLJ Partners.

The move sees Kerr go from one American Idol coproducer to another at a critical juncture in both parties’ history. FremantleMedia is gearing up for a potential acquisitions spree after majority owner Bertelsmann freed up the necessary cash, while Core is rapidly expanding under former NBC Entertainment chief Marc Graboff and is weighing a sale of assets, including Elvis Presley’s home Graceland, as part of a strategic review.

The firm bought out Man v Food producer Sharp Entertainment last summer, signed a pact with Grimm producer Hazy Mills earlier this year, linked up with former Entertainment One exec Noreen Halpern for scripted and added to its unscripted activities by taking a controlling stake in B17 Entertainment last month.

Last week, Core struck up a partnership with Israeli prodco Tedy Productions with a view to developing scripted and non-scripted shows and formats for the domestic and international markets.

Forty-year-old Tedy is behind series including A Star is Born and Danny Hollywood. Founders Tmira and David Yardeni are now working with Core TV chief Jen O’Connell in the US, as well as Shaps in the UK.

Core (fka CKX) is owned by Apollo Global Management, which, along with John de Mol investment vehicle Cyrte, is a major shareholder in Endemol.