Dederick, Simon claim they still own TV2
screengrab from fem3.hu
Saying they have not yet surrendered ownership of TV2, Yvonne Dederick and Zsolt Simon asserted yesterday that their deal to sell the countryʼs second biggest commercial channel to film commissioner Andrew G. Vajna is legal, and rejected Károly Fonyóʼs claim that he and Lajos Simicska had exercised a pre-purchase option on Tuesday and bought the channel.
Yvonne Dederick talking on a show on FEM3, owned by TV2 Media Group Holdings Kft. (Photo: fem3.hu)
“TV2 currently is ours, as it has been, and until the winding up of the transaction announced on October 15 we will be operating as CEOs as normal,” Dederick and Simon told tenyek.hu, the channel’s online daily.
On Thursday, just after the sale to Vajna was announced, Fonyó claimed that his firm, Megapolis Media Zrt., had a pre-purchase option for TV2 Media Group Holdings Kft., which owns TV2 and another three channels. Fonyó said Megapolis Media exercised that option and purchased the firms on Tuesday.
Dederick and Simon claimed yesterday that “they do not remember” such a contract, and as they have worked with serious legal offices on the contract with Vajna, nobody should take such “fantasies” seriously.
The two insisted that yesterday’s contract is legal, and the current “fake scandal” will not affect the operations of the channel. They said that workers of the channel should not worry, because everyone will get their salaries.
Fonyó rejected the claims of Dederick and Simon, saying that TV2 now belonged to his company due to a “complex legal construction” in his old contract with them. He suggested the issue would wind up in court, saying he expects a “legal debate”.
Asked who will pay the channel’s workers, Fonyo said Dederick and Simon should do so for the time being, as they are currently the acting CEOs of the firm operating the channel.
“Probably for a couple of days,” Fonyo added, noting that his company bought the firm that operates TV2, and that he had fired Dederick and Simon from their positions.
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