Alan J. Sokol, senior partner of InterMedia, will become CEO of Hemisphere
InterMedia Partners VII, L.P. and Azteca Acquisition Corporation today announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which InterMedia will merge Cine Latino, Inc. and InterMedia Español Holdings, LLC -which includes WAPA América and WAPA TV- with Azteca Acquisition Corporation in a transaction valued at approximately U$400 million.The new company will be called Hemisphere Media Group, Inc., and will be the only publicly traded, pure-play U.S. Hispanic TV/cable networks and content platform, managed by a team of executives with exceptional Hispanic media expertise.Hemisphere will be headquartered in Miami, Florida and will include: Cinelatino; WAPA América, and WAPA TV.Alan J. Sokol, senior partner of InterMedia, who will become CEO of Hemisphere, stated, The combination of these two companies creates a powerful new presence in Hispanic media. Since InterMedia acquired WAPA and Cinelatino in 2007, we have dramatically increased ratings, revenue and profitability of both companies. I look forward to working with our talented management teams to continue to build upon this success as we enter this new chapter.We are thrilled to be merging with and taking public these exciting, highly profitable and complementary companies, which have performed exceptionally under the operational and industry expertise of Alan Sokol and his teams. Hemisphere will meet the growing media demands of Hispanic consumers, stated Gabriel Brener, CEO of Azteca Acquisition Corporation.Peter Kern, managing partner of InterMedia, will serve as Chairman of Hemisphere Media Group. Craig Fischer, who worked closely with Mr. Sokol at InterMedia in overseeing these companies, will serve as Hemisphere Media Groups Chief Financial Officer. Brener and Sokol will become directors of the new company.
