UTV has announced a deal to buy Dublin radio station FM104 for €52m.

Emap’s consumer magazine division has attracted interest from the US publisher of Maxim, it was reported today.

Italian magazine publisher Mondadori, controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is looking to snap up Emap’s consumer magazines arm, it emerged today.

Private equity firm Apax has made a £1.3bn (€2bn) approach for a major slice of magazines and radio group Emap, it was reported today.

ALTHOUGH just a few months ago Denis O’Brien was distancing himself from speculation regarding a bid for Emap’s Irish radio operations, his emergence as the successful bidder — through his Communicorp Group — this week, has really come as no surprise to the industry.

NINE companies have applied to run the two-year digital terrestrial television (DTT) trial.

IT is estimated that there are eight interested parties vying to buy regional radio station, Waterford Local Radio (WLR), which is valued at close to €8 million.

THE deadline for the new youth-focused radio licence for the south-west is April 19.

DENIS O’Brien’s radio firm Communicorp Group has bought two radio stations in the Ukraine.

ATTEMPTS by chairman Denis O’Brien to gain control of Esat Digifone threatened to collapse the Irish/Norwegian consortium bidding for the country’s second mobile licence, a witness told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday.

DAYS before Esat Digifone got the licence to run the country’s second mobile phone network in May, 1996, Norwegian executives feared businessman Denis O’Brien would use his Dermot Desmond connection to gain control of the consortium, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

FINANCIER Dermot Desmond’s company prevented “World War 3” breaking out between Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp Group and Norwegian State telecoms firm Telenor, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

ESAT Digifone would never have signed the country’s second mobile phone licence if the Department of Communications was unhappy financier Dermot Desmond had come on board, entrepreneur Denis O’Brien told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday.

ANTI-BIN charge protesters received a solicitor’s letter threatening legal action an hour after announcing they would picket Dublin Castle to coincide with the appearance of businessman Denis O’Brien before the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday.

FORMER civil servant Fintan Towey yesterday denied the reason department officials took no notes of a key meeting with Esat Digifone was to conceal what was being discussed before the GSM2 licence was issued.

A CIVIL servant told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he would have blown the whistle if he was pressurised from doing his job.

FINANCIER Dermot Desmond has personally contacted Mr Justice Michael Moriarty on a number of occasions to complain about the way the tribunal is conducting its inquiry, the clearly annoyed chairman said yesterday.

FORMER department secretary general John Loughrey insisted yesterday there was nothing sinister in the fact that civil servants took no notes of vital meetings with Esat Digifone executives just days before the consortium got the country’s second GSM licence.

THE former department secretary general John Loughrey yesterday regretted allowing civil servants hold a press conference in April 1996 to defend their decision to give the second mobile telephone licence to Esat Digifone.

A RETIRED civil servant told the Moriarty Tribunal he never had any direct business dealings with financier Dermot Desmond.

SENIOR civil servant Martin Brennan told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he would have probed Dermot Desmond’s link to the second mobile phone licence if he had known about the financier’s part in an earlier controversial property deal.

ROWS between the Irish and Norwegian partners threatened Esat Digifone’s survival less than a week before the consortium was granted the licence to operate the country’s second mobile phone network, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

RUMOURS surfaced that financier Dermot Desmond was an Esat Digifone shareholder when the consortium won the competition for the country’s second mobile phone licence, the Moriarty Tribunal was told yesterday.

THERE was no suggestion from evidence made available to the tribunal that former Communications Minister Michael Lowry interfered with the Government committee that selected the winner of the country’s second mobile telephone licence, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said yesterday.

BUSINESSMAN Denis O’Brien pledged that Esat Digifone would remain Irish-controlled and there would be a three-to-one voting ratio in favour of the Irish investors, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.