UNITED Group

This Friday, or next week at the latest, the creditors of Forthnet will convene to select which of the three bidders for the acquisition of the telecommunication company's obligations will shoulder its loans and buy out the firm that operates Nova satellite TV.

Forthnet's creditor banks have received a second proposal for the acquisition of the troubled telecommunications service provider's loans.

N1 said the latest attacks happened last Thursday when a paid DDoS strike from China hit the Serbian website twice that day.

The attacks started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday afternoon. The second attack was five times stronger, with up to 300,000 access requests hitting the portal server a second.

The Balkan telecommunications and media company United Group, owned by BC Partners, has announced that it has agreed to acquire Bulgaria's leading telecommunications operator Vivacom, Reuters reported. The amount at which the transaction will be executed is not disclosed.

From a total of 949 applications representing all 23 countries of emerging Europe, 120
companies and organisations, spread across 12 categories, have been officially nominated for the Emerging Europe Awards. In addition, 23 investment promotion
agencies and 75 cities have been included in two research projects: the Investment

United Group, a US-owned, Netherlands-based telecoms provider, bought a pro-government TV station in Montenegro, raising hopes the channel would pursue more objective coverage. But little changed.

United Group's General Counsel, Steve Leroy, said nothing would change after the private equity firm BC Partners this week acquired a majority stake in the largest alternative pay-TV company in former Yugoslavia.

"The future plans for the companies within the group, including the N1 news network, will not change," Leroy told BIRN.

Macedonian citizens will vote on whether to change the name of their country to "North Macedonia" - i.e., support an agreement reached with Greece after a multi-decade dispute.

According to the latest polls, most of those who said they would vote will circle "yes" - but it remains uncertain whether the turnout will reach the necessary minimum of 50 percent of voters.

The buyer is British company BC Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported on September 27, according to Beta agency.

United Group, created in 2007 in a merger of SBB, Telemach Slovenija and Telemach Bosna, is the owner of cable provider SBB in Serbia, Telemach in Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, and TV channels Sport Klub, N1, Cinemania, TOP, Ultra, Grand and others.

A private equity firm, BC Partners, is to take over majority ownership of Serbia's largest cable company, United Group, from the US-based equity firm, KKR, which will downgrade to minority owner, BC Partners and KKR announced jointly on Thursday. 

"BC Partners is the final buyer of KKR's stake," BC Partners told BIRN on Thursday.