The Swedes deny possible sale of Lithuanian and Estonian dailies
Posted by editor on 10/14/09 • Categorized as Business • 
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The Lithuanian daily Vilniaus Diena has reported that the owners of the Lithuanian business daily Verslo Zinios and the Estonian business daily Aripaev have signed a sale deal which should be closed on 15 November. This information was based on reports from another Estonian paper Eesti Paevaleht. However, the Swedish Bonnier Business Press the owners of the both above mentioned papers has vigorously denied this information.
Vilniaus diena quoted Verslo Zinios Editor-in-Chief Rolandas Barysas as saying ‘Nothing is happening there. I am a shareholder of the newspaper and the law requires that shareholders be informed about any sale of shares earlier than others, but I know nothing about this. This means that nobody is selling anything. And if Bonnier wants to sell the shares in Verslo Zinios, Barysas will be the first to buy them. You can be sure about that. These rumours are being spread by unreliable people, to put it mildly.’
Anders Eriksson, Bonnier’s CEO for Central and Eastern Europe is quoted by the paper saying that ‘I don’t know why these rumours are being spread, or who could benefit from that, but our plans have definitely not changed – we don’t intend to sell the dailies we own in Lithuania and Estonia.’
The rumours could be spreading because Bonnier Business Press few months ago sold Latvia’s biggest daily newspaper, Diena, and the business daily Dienas Bizness.
Further more, an undeclared war has erupted between the Lithuanian Diena Media group (Vilniaus diena, Kauno diena, Klaipėda dailies ) and Verslo Zinios last month when the latter reported on Diena Media group’s dire financial situation. This report did not go unnoticed by the Diena Media Group.
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