SCHLUMBERGER
Former BG Chief Appointed to Board
LONDON -- Oil-services giant Schlumberger Ltd. has appointed
Helge Lund to its board, taking on the former CEO of BG Group PLC
just months after the British oil and natural gas producer was
acquired by Royal Dutch Shell PLC in a roughly $50 billion
deal.
The appointment of Mr. Lund by Schlumberger comes as major oil
and gas producers such as Shell have cut back heavily on capital
spending and other costs in the face of lower oil prices, with
serious knock-on effects on the oil-services sector. Schlumberger
has cut around 36,000 jobs, or 28% of its workforce, since November
2014.
The Shell-BG deal, which completed in February this year, was
engineered by BG's Executive Chairman Andrew Gould, the former head
of Schlumberger and one of the biggest names in the oil
industry.
Mr. Lund, 53, became CEO of BG in February last year, only a few
weeks before Shell moved in with its offer for the company. Mr.
Lund came to BG from Norway's Statoil ASA, where he won praise as a
skillful executive, forcing the Norwegian company over his 10-year
tenure as CEO to drill across the world while also revitalizing its
work in the home country's continental shelf.
When Mr. Lund took up the helm at BG last year, the company had
been roiled by years of under delivery on its own output and profit
targets and turmoil at the top level at the company which had been
without a CEO for almost a year. Last year, the U.K.'s third
largest oil and natural gas firm finally came into its own: The
cash started rolling in as its massive LNG project in Australia
came online, production ramped up in Brazil and a phase of mega
investment ended.
While investors welcomed Mr. Lund's appointment, his generous
compensation package immediately drew controversy. Shareholders
objected to a share award, valued at the time at GBP12 million
($17.4 million), for the incoming Mr. Lund in what became one of
the biggest revolts over executive pay in the U.K. in recent years.
BG eventually bowed to investor pressure and scrapped the share
award.
There had been some speculation about what Mr. Lund would do
after the Shell-BG deal closed. He had always said he wasn't
seeking a role at the new combined company and would move on from
BG once the deal completed
Schlumberger said in a statement that Mr. Lund will serve as a
director until the next annual general meeting. The board hasn't
yet determined which committees Mr. Lund will be assigned to.
--Selina Williams
VIVENDI
Watchdog Rejects Canal Plus Alliance
The French antitrust watchdog has rejected an alliance between
Vivendi SA's pay-TV group Canal Plus and Qatar-controlled beIN
Sports, dealing a major blow to the French media company.
The deal, which had been under discussion for months, involved
Canal Plus paying EUR1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) to distribute
channels from the Qatari group exclusively for five years, people
familiar with the matter said.
"This project to ally, of which we don't know everything,
contained a risk of collusion in sports rights, as the two actors
would have held 80% of sports rights, and the football league was
worried," antitrust chief Bruno Lasserre said.
"An agreement couldn't be found for concessions that would have
limited competition risks. We preferred to say no," he added.
Thursday's verdict is a setback for Vivendi, which has described
the deal as an essential part of its strategy to stem losses at its
struggling French pay-TV channels, which have been losing money for
the last four years.
In a statement, Canal Plus said it "acknowledged" the decision
and would work on "alternative solutions" to stop the losses at its
French channels.
BeIN Sports entered the French market in 2012, spending millions
of euros scooping up live sports rights including the UEFA
Champions League and French Ligue 1 soccer games and quickly
becoming a formidable competitor to Canal Plus.
Although the beIN Sports channel now counts more than 2.5
million subscribers in France, turning a profit has proved more
difficult. Analysts at Natixis estimate the channel is losing
between EUR250 million and EUR300 million a year, partly because it
charges subscribers EUR13 a month for expensively acquired sports
content.
For Vivendi, a lot is at stake in returning Canal Plus to
financial health. The pay-TV group is currently Vivendi's largest
business, accounting for more than half of its sales, and is a key
cornerstone of the group's plans to build a media empire focused on
southern Europe.
--Nick Kostov
USA TODAY
Editor in Chief Leaves to Join TheStreet
USA Today's editor in chief, David Callaway, is leaving the
newspaper to become chief executive at TheStreet Inc., ending a
nearly four-year tenure leading one of the nation's most prominent
news organizations.
Mr. Callaway will also take a board seat at TheStreet, a
financial news site co-founded by CNBC host Jim Cramer. Larry
Kramer, TheStreet's interim CEO, will step down and resume his
position as nonexecutive chairman. The moves are effective in early
July.
Patty Michalski, the paper's managing editor of digital content,
has been named interim editor in chief, Gannett Co. said in a
statement. The paper will launch a nationwide search -- including
internal and external candidates -- for a successor.
The timing of Mr. Callaway's departure is especially notable
given USA Today is the flagship news outlet of Gannett Co.
Gannett has aggressively pursued a takeover of Tribune
Publishing Co., which has rejected two buyout offers from
Gannett.
Mr. Callaway joined USA Today as the paper's top editor in 2012.
He was formerly editor in chief at MarketWatch, a property owned by
Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Robert Dickey, Gannett's CEO, praised Mr. Callaway for
"expanding USA Today's footprint both digitally and in print."
Shares of Gannett, edged down 0.3% in the past three months,
were inactive premarket. TheStreet's stock, which has climbed 26%
in the past three months, also were unchanged.
--Joshua Jamerson
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 10, 2016 02:50 ET (06:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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