EM.TV close to Crown Media stake sale

Germany's EM.TV is close to signing a deal handing over its minority stake in US media outfit Crown Media.

The Munich-based company's 8.2% stake in Crown Media, which operates and distributes The Hallmark Channel and Odyssey Network, is due to be sold off to one of Crown existing investors Hallmark Entertainment, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards.

The estimated $103m that EM.TV will make from the deal is expected to go towards paying off its bank loans. The deal is due to be inked and announced within the next few days.

Other Crown investors include: Liberty Media, the National Interfaith Cable Coalition and JP Morgan Partners.

In other news, EM.TV's founder and ceo Thomas Haffa has quit. He is to be replaced by Werner E Klatten, ceo of Spiegelnet.

Klatten will become a substantial shareholder in the kids TV producer by taking 25.1% of Haffa's shares while Haffa will retain a 16% stake in the in the company.

Haffa's reign over EM.TV has seen the once-feted company build up $2bn in debt and its share price plummet from a high of Eu110 in February 2000 to the current value of just under Eu3, up 30% since the news of Haffa's departure emerged.