The Jerusalem District Court today approved the sale of Hebrew daily "Makor Rishon" and the "Ma'ariv" online edition nrg to Sheldon Adelson's daily "Israel Today" for NIS 17 million: NIS 14 million for "Makor Rishon" and NIS 3 million for "nrg". The sale is subject to approval by the Antitrust Authority.
Judge David Mintz expressed reservations about the sale because it does not also include the Hebrew daily newspaper "Ma'ariv" itself. However, Adv. Shalom Goldblatt stressed that the most important thing at the moment was to save the brands and the employees rather than the company.
The "Ma'ariv" daily newspaper is still up for sale after offers from the "Jerusalem Post" and Udi Ragonis were not considered worthwhile in the eyes of the receiver
"Israel Today" committed to keep on 90% of the employees of national-orthodox newspaper "Makor Rishon" -114 out of 120 employees, 90% of freelancers, and all the newspaper's distribution employees.
"Makor Rishon," "Ma'ariv" and "nrg" are all owned by Shlomo Ben-Tzvi but were placed in trusteeship after a stay-of-proceedings was approved by the court.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 30, 2014
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