February 10, 1998 (TOKYO) -- PerfecTV Corp. (PerfecTV!) and Japan Sky Broadcasting Co., Ltd. (JSkyB), both satellite digital broadcasting services, agreed to merge on an equal basis.

The merger is expected to be completed in early April. The two companies, which made the announcement Feb. 3, will be incorporated into PerfecTV.

Upon merging, Hajime Unoki, president of JSkyB, will become PerfecTV Corp.'s chairman. Kouya Mita, president of PerfecTV!, will be president.

Incorporation of the two companies, both capitalized at 20 billion yen (US$160 million), will be realized by trading one JSkyB stock for a PerfecTV! stock so the two companies will equally hold the shareholder ratio of 50:50. No information is available yet about the details of the investment ratio of corporate investors.

The agreement on this merger was reached by PerfecTV! and its main investors, Itochu Corp., Sumitomo Corp., Nissho Iwai Corp., Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Japan Satellite Systems Inc. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc., along with JSkyB and its investors, News Corp., Soft Bank Corp., Sony Corp. and Fuji Television Network Inc.

PerfecTV! and JSkyB will organize a merger preparation committee to settle the details of the new company and its business in terms of content, schedule, and services, as well as board members.

(Nikkei Multimedia)