Univision Communications Inc

After years of bad blood and nearly three weeks of court testimony, Mexico's entertainment giant Grupo Televisa and the dominant Spanish-language TV company in the U.S., Univision Communications Inc., abruptly ended their four-year legal battle Thursday. The settlement averted a potentially disastrous outcome for Univision, which could have lost its pipeline of Televisa's popular soap operas, called telenovelas, that drive Univision's enormous ratings.

Seeking to become el grande in the growing U.S. Latin music market, Universal Music Group on Thursday said it had agreed to buy Univision Communications Inc.'s record division. The purchase price was nearly $140 million, according to two people close to the negotiations who asked not to be identified because the financial terms were confidential. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval, would more than triple Universal's share of the Latin music market to about 49%.

Saying it had expected Univision Communications Inc. to gain more on the sale of its music division, ratings agency Standard & Poor's this week downgraded the corporate credit ratings of the Spanish-language media company to a B-minus from a B. Univision last week announced it had reached an agreement to sell its music division to Universal Music Group for $153 million, of which $113 million is due to Univision upon closing.

A record $24-million fine looming against Univision Communications Inc. for airing children's soap operas to comply with a federal educational programming requirement may open a new front in the battle between regulators and broadcasters over what is televised on the public airwaves. Advocates for more child-friendly programs praised the fine, hoping it would send a strong message about the importance of a law they said many broadcasters half-heartedly tried to obey.

A top advertising executive was named Tuesday as chief executive of Univision Communications Inc., signaling a priority by the company's prospective owners to squeeze more money from Madison Avenue for the huge Latino audience the TV broadcaster delivers. The group of private investors preparing to pay $12.3 billion for the Los Angeles-based company hired Joe Uva, 51, as the successor to Bel-Air billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio, who has run Univision for nearly 15 years.

Los Angeles billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio on Thursday waved adios to the business he has spent nearly 15 years building into the nation's foremost Spanish-language media company, Univision Communications Inc. As expected, the sale of the Century City-based company for $12.3 billion closed Thursday, two days after winning the blessing of the Federal Communications Commission. The new owners, a consortium of investors including another Los Angeles billionaire, Haim Saban, paid $36.

Univision Communications Inc.'s new owners threw a coming-out party here Wednesday that made clear that the Spanish-language network has bid adios to its tight-lipped ways. For the first time in 15 years, a Univision chief executive personally addressed the crowd of advertisers that gathered in New York for network television's annual upfront meetings. The network's goal was to woo advertisers who were looking to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.

A miniseries inspired by Jennifer Lopez's new album and a Spanish version of "Desperate Housewives" are among 30 new programs announced by Spanish-language TV network Univision for the new season. "Como Ama una Mujer (How a Woman Loves)" will be based on Lopez's Spanish-language album of the same title, the network said. Other programs announced Wednesday by Univision Communications Inc.

The world's largest music companies have expressed interest in buying Univision Communications Inc.'s music unit, with an auction expected to pick up this week, sources familiar with the matter said Monday. Potential bidders will start looking at the books of the Latin music unit. Univision decided in February to put it up for sale, according to a report in the Financial Times on Monday. The Los Angeles-based Spanish-language broadcaster is trying to trim debt since its $12.

A Los Angeles-based Latino record label has sued Univision Music for more than $10 million, claiming the Spanish-language company tried to financially crush the music firm after it spurned an alleged scheme to bribe radio stations into prominently airing Univision's music. Platino Records' lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleged that executives at Univision Music drove down Platino's sales after the firm's owner, Alberto Mitchell, refused to participate.