Mediaset and Kirch said they will pool 1bn euros (pounds 670m) in assets in the joint venture.. The alliance includes private Spanish station Telecinco – of which Mediaset and Kirch each own 25 per cent – and Saudi financier Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. Both firms have held lengthy talks with Rupert Murdoch, but the broadcasters said the deal would be an Italian, Spanish and German venture with a potential 200 million viewers. Direct government-funded R&D was pounds 2.33bn, diving by 7 per cent in real terms.. ITALIAN broadcasting group Mediaset and Germany’s Kirch Group unveiled a new media alliance yesterday with plans for a 1bn euro pan- European television network. The Budget pre-announced a new R&D tax credit for small companies.

R&D in 1997 funded by business accounted for pounds 7.25bn of the pounds 14.65bn total, and rose by 4 per cent in real terms on the previous year. BRITAIN’S SPENDING on research and development fell in real terms for the fourth year in a row in 1997, official figures yesterday show. As a share of output, R&D spending dropped to 1.8 per cent, the lowest recorded and well below the average for other leading economies: the same figure is 2.3 per cent in France and Germany, 2.6 per cent in the US and 3 per cent in Japan. Manchester United and BSkyB initially rejected the claim, but eventually conceded in the hope that it would improve their chances of an MMC go-ahead.. Both the MMC and OFT are thought to have expressed doubts over whether BSkyB and Manchester United could be made to observe the conditions.Rival media companies argue that Manchester United could use its position on the Premier League board to help BSkyB keep its grip on television rights. Nevertheless BSkyB, 40 per cent owned byRupert Murdoch, believes the takeover could be cleared if the two companies agree to stringent conditions.The conditions would have to be agreed with the Office of Fair Trading, which would be responsible for policing them. The concession, which Manchester United and BSkyB offered to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission when the watchdog was compiling its report on the takeover, is likely to be included as a condition the Premiership club has to meet if the deal is agreed.
The MMC report has now been passed to Stephen Byers, the Trade and Industry Secretary, who is likely to rule on the takeover in the next few weeks.The report has been the subject of intense speculation, with reports in the past week suggesting the MMC had concluded the takeover was against the public interest.

MANCHESTER UNITED has agreed not to use its vote when future Premier League television contracts are awarded in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the competition authorities from blocking its pounds 623m takeover by British Sky Broadcasting. BICC has done badly in the past but is worth more than that, possibly up to 140p,” said one investor.Shares in BICC closed 12.5p up at 94.5p, reflecting hopes of a higher offer. Wassall, which owns 9 per cent of BICC, said it would meet BICC’s major shareholders this week.. The investors dismissed the offer, rejected by BICC on Thursday, as “ridiculous” and “hopelessly inadequate” and said Wassall would have to bid at least pounds 500m.
The tension between the two groups rose last night after the BICC chief executive, Alan Jones, refused to meet his Wassall counterpart Chris Miller to negotiate the terms of an agreed takeover. Mr Jones said he would not talk to Wassall unless it tabled a formal bid well above the current 90p- a-share offer.”They will not get us to sit around the table unless they put an offer on the table which the board thinks is fair to our shareholders,” Mr Jones said.His defiance was bolstered by a number of investors who said the Wassall offer fell far short of the real value of the group, which last year had sales of pounds 3.9bn but lost pounds 94m before tax.They said that, although the share price plummeted nearly 80 per cent in 1998 as sales were savaged by a downturn in the cables market, the company has sold its worst businesses to focus on profitable operations such as the construction subsidiary Balfour Beatty “An offer of 90p is ridiculous. LEADING SHAREHOLDERS in BICC, the construction-to-cables group, yesterday backed the board’s decision to rebuff a pounds 379m informal takeover approach from Wassall.