Time Warner Bids $1.4B for Endemol

The Dutch producer of “Big Brother” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” has billions in debt to restructure

Time Warner, fresh off a strong third quarter earnings report, has apparently made a $1.4 billion bid for Endemol, the Dutch production company behind such hits as “Big Brother,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Deal or No Deal.”

While Time Warner has declined to comment on the matter to TheWrap, Endemol spokesperson Charlie Armistead has confirmed the bid to several news outlets.

Endemol is still generating a great deal of revenue, but it has 2.8 billion euros in debt that it must restructure. Its value has dropped as a result of the debt.

Two-thirds of its lenders would have to approve the deal, which marks Time Warner's latest attempt to exand its international production business.

A pair of Dutch media magnates, John deMol and Joop van den Ende, founded the company in 1994 but then sold it in 2007 to a trio of companies — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset SpA, Goldman Sachs‘ Capital Partners and the Cyrte Investments, an investment fund founded by de Mol.

Its CEO, Ynon Kreiz, stepped down in June amidst a dispute about the future of the company.

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