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METRO

Metro’s losses mount as potential bid fails to materialize

Metro International, publisher of the free daily Metro newspaper, saw its shares on the Stockholm stock exchange plunge Monday morning following huge first quarter losses and news the company was abandoning talks with a potential bidder.

Metro lost €15.3 million ($19.8 million) in the first quarter of 2009, more than double the €6.4 million the company lost in the corresponding quarter last year.

Overall net revenues were down 24 percent to €55.6 million.

Shares in Metro plummeted nearly 40 percent in early morning trading on the Stockholm stock exchange. Shortly before 2pm, Metro’s stock was trading at 0.97 kronor per share, down 36.6 percent for the day.

The Kinnevik investment firm, which owns nearly 40 percent of Metro International, also announced early Monday it was terminating discussions regarding a possible purchase of Metro International after learning that the bidder was unlikely to make an offer for Metro, considered the world’s largest international newspaper.

Metro sees little hope of a short term recovery, expecting April advertising revenues to be down 15 to 20 percent compared to the previous year.

In an effort to stem the bleeding, the company has cut operating costs by 14 percent, although the full effects of the measures aren’t expected to be seen until the second quarter.

Following abandoned talks with the potential buyer, Metro’s board announced it planned to move ahead with a previously announced rights issue.

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BUSINESS

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat

Google announced Wednesday the reopening of its news service in Spain next year after the country amended a law that imposed fees on aggregators such as the US tech giant for using publishers’ content.

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat
Google argues its news site drives readers to Spanish newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue.Photo: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

The service closed in Spain in December 2014 after legislation passed requiring web platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay publishers to reproduce content from other websites, including links to their articles that describe a story’s content.

But on Tuesday the Spanish government approved a European Union copyright law that allows third-party online news platforms to negotiate directly with content providers regarding fees.

This means Google no longer has to pay a fee to Spain’s entire media industry and can instead negotiate fees with individual publishers.

Writing in a company blog post on Wednesday, Google Spain country manager Fuencisla Clemares welcomed the government move and announced that as a result “Google News will soon be available once again in Spain”.

“The new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content,” she added.

“Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law.”

News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long seethed at the failure of Google particularly to pay them a cut of the millions it makes from ads displayed alongside news stories.

Google argues its news site drives readers to newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue and find new subscribers.

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