Vivendi has secured overall control of Société d’Edition de Canal Plus (SECP), the company that controls the Canal+ premium channel family in France, "as a result of the tender offer it initiated in May." Vivendi now controls 93.6% of SECP, with the tender resulting in the transfer of 45.2% of the share capital of the unit to it, on top of the 48.5% it already owned. Vivendi said that it would "reopen the public tender for a period of at least 10 stock market days" at the same price of €8 ($8.90) per share to enable shareholders that have not yet tendered their shares to do so (DIGITAL TV EUROPE, 8/18). ... The New Zealand Rugby League's financial position is "so dire" it cannot afford to "send a national schoolboy's side across the Tasman to play their Australian rivals." The NZRL accepted an invitation from Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League to send a schoolboy national team to play two games. However, the long-running annual clash "has been put on the back burner" after NZRL CEO Phil Holden wrote to ASSRL President Grant Edwards, saying financial constraints "would now prevent them from attending" (NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 8/19).
