Haim Saban
Haim Saban (Hebrew חיים סבן Chaim Saban, * October 15, 1944 in Alexandria, Egypt) is one of the largest media companies in the world and billionaire. Haim Saban has the Israeli and U.S. citizenship.
Life
As the son of Jewish parents, he grew up in Egypt in poverty. His father sold office supplies, his mother was a seamstress. When he was 12 years old, his family moved to Tel Aviv. He initially began working as a concert promoter in Israel, but 1973 was insolvent after a concert flop. According to some sources, he tried his hand at this time, as a bass player in a band.
Despite high debt, he moved to Paris and tried there as a music producer for TV film music ( "Dallas "). 1983, after initial success, he went with $ 500,000 to Los Angeles. There he initially imported Japanese cartoons. In 1993 he managed with the Power Rangers breakthrough. In 1995 he founded with Rupert Murdoch a joint venture and started the children's channel Fox Kids.
He is a good friend of former U.S. President Bill Clinton. In Israel he has sympathy for Shimon Peres and the Labor Party. During the presidential campaign in 2012 he presented himself clearly on the side of Barack Obama and put in a commentary for the New York Times whose just from conservatives often drawn into doubt ties with Israel out.
The acquisition of shares of the Kirch Media Group ( see also: Leo Kirch) in August 2003, he was also one of the most influential people in the German media, he was also the main shareholder of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. In December 2006, Saban sold and investors around it at a high profit, the shares in ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG to a consortium of Permira and KKR.
In January 2006, an application for the acquisition of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG by Axel Springer Verlag by the Federal Cartel Office on the grounds of a potential " duopoly " together with the Bertelsmann group (common TV market share: 40%) was dismissed.
In the period to August 2005 Saban's media group made a huge plus that has the media mogul introduced a large profit: Estimated 800 million EUR invested he and his partners in 2003, including a subsequent capital increase, the market value in August of 2005 was nearly 2.5 billion EUR. He was able to achieve in 2001 when he (then about 5.6 billion EUR ) sold the built together with Rupert Murdoch family channel Fox Family at Walt Disney for $ 5.3 billion a similar success.