Sheldon Adelson, the owner of freesheet "Israel Today" and Shlomo Ben-Tzvi, the new owner of Hebrew daily "Ma'ariv", have settled their dispute. The two men notified the Tel Aviv District Court today that they had reached a settlement in their dispute over Israel's first freesheet "Israel News".
"The parties have reached agreements that render further proceedings unnecessary. As part of the agreements, the court is asked to dismiss the mutual claims being heard," Adelson and Ben-Tzvi wrote to the court. Judge Avi Zamir accepted the motion and dismissed the claims without an order for costs. The parties declined to disclose the details of the settlement.
The roots of the case go back to January 2006, when "Israel News", the country's first freesheet, was launched by Ben-Tzvi's Hirsh Media Ltd. The newspaper, which later changed its name to "Israeli", was distributed for free at train and bus stations and other public locations. At its peak, it had a print run of 170,000 copies, but it closed in January 2008.
In November 2006, 50% of "Israeli" was acquired by Newsco Inc., owned by Adelson, the current owner of "Israel Today". Shortly afterwards, "Israeli" was caught up in a dispute between Adelson and Ben-Tzvi, and they filed lawsuits against each other with the Tel Aviv District Court. Adelson and Newsco sued Ben-Tzvi and Hirsh Media for NIS 31.3 million, claiming that they took for themselves money that Adelson had invested in Israel News Ltd. Ben-Tzvi counter-sued Adelson for NIS 12 million, claiming that Adelson and Newsco had cancelled the partnership agreement between the parties without notice, causing Ben-Tzvi severe financial damage and forcing Hirsh Media to bear the costs of publishing the newspaper alone.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 13, 2012
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