The story
Arena Holdings's media assets originated in the publishing stable of the Omni Media Corporation, which was owned by Anglo American until the latter unbundled various media assets during the black economic empowerment (BEE) boom of the early post-apartheid period. Control of the media assets (then held under Times Media Limited) vested in Johnnic Holdings Limited, which was controlled by the BEE group National Empowerment Consortium.
Johnnic Holdings restructured in 2000, creating Johnnic Communications (Johncom) from the entertainment and publishing assets of the former Omni Media Corporation. By 2003, Johncom was valued at between R1.5 billion and R2 billion, and the following year its wholly owned subsidiary, Johnnic Publishing, acquired New Africa Publications – which owned 100 per cent of the influential Sowetan newspaper – from New Africa Investments Limited. In March 2005, Johnnic Holdings unbundled its entire 62.5 per cent shareholding in Johncom, as Johnnic Holdings moved to refocus on the hotels and gaming sector. In October 2007, Johncom announced a proposal to change its name to Avusa in order to distinguish itself from its former parent company.
Shortly afterwards, in November 2007, a company called Koni Media Holdings launched a R7-billion bid to take over 100 per cent of Avusa, possibly with funding from the state-owned asset manager, the Public Investment Corporation. Because Koni Media's shareholders also included three high-level government officials – Titus Mafolo, Ronnie Mamoepa and Billy Modise – there was wide speculation that President Thabo Mbeki's government was involved in the takeover bid, a claim strongly denied by Koni Media and by Mbeki. The deal did not go through.
The Mvelaphanda Group launched a bid to take over Avusa in 2012, and in September of that year it unbundled Avusa's media assets into a new holding company, Times Media Group (formerly a Mvelaphanda subsidiary named Richtrau 229), which listed on the JSE on 25 September. In 2013, the Times Media Group took full ownership of BDFM (the publisher of the Business Day and Financial Mail), buying Pearson's 50 per cent stake in the venture. However, in the same year, Times Media sold Exclusive Books to a private equity firm in September 2013, and it sold Nu Metro to another private equity firm in January 2014.
The Blackstar Group (newly renamed Tiso Blackstar Group) acquired full ownership of the Times Media Group in June 2015, and the latter was renamed as Tiso Blackstar Group in June 2017. However, in 2019, Tiso Blackstar Group sold its print, broadcasting, and content assets to Lebashe Investment Group for R1.05 billion; Lebashe rebundled the assets in a new company called Arena Holdings. In September 2023, Arena Holdings announced that it was restructuring its news and entertainment businesses.
From Wikipedia’s article on Arena Holdings, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4