All3Media snaps up German indie

Super-indie All3Media is making its first move towards becoming a major international company by acquiring one of Germany's biggest independent producers.

Super-indie All3Media is making its first move towards becoming a major international company by acquiring one of Germany's biggest independent producers.

The company has signed a binding agreement with MME Moviement's management and Supervisory Board who hold 42% of the shares and All3Media will make a public offer at 7 euros per share for the rest of the company. The deal values MME Moviement (Me, Myself & Eye) at Eu78.3 and the company is expected to recommend the offer to its shareholders.

MME Moviement produces music formats such as The Dome (pictured), as well as drama and factual output. It made a German version of the BBC's Great Britons called Unsere Besten and is the largest supplier of daytime strands in Germany

All3Media chief executive Steve Morrison said: 'Our feeling is that we should scale up from being a largely UK-based company with international reach to becoming more of an international company.'

Germany has been targeted because of its 'great appetite' for British formats, said Morrison and because the company is similar in structure and outlook. Like All3Media it is a portfolio company, housing 6 companies which each retain their own culture and identity. All3Media already has a presence in the US, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

All3Media has had considerable success with Lion's Cash Cab selling the format in 16 territories including 200 episodes to Germany in a peaktime slot. Midsomer Murders has been its biggest hit selling to over 220 territories but it now wants to export more drama formats.

'The next stage in international exploitation is in fiction formats,' said Morrison.

Meanwhile, HBO has announced that All3's Company Pictures' Charlie Pattinson and George Faber are to executive produce its next major drama, Generation Kill, which tells the story of American soldiers posted to Iraq during the war. The seven hour scripted drama series will begin a six-month shoot this summer in Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa.