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"It all started yesterday with an article in Le Figaro; according to\u00A0the French newspaper, the US fund Tiger Global\u00A0is planning to put\u00A0Allocine up for sale for \u20AC200m over the next months. In 2007, Tiger had acquired a majority stake of the Paris-based cinema information\u00A0company for \u20AC120m.\r\n\r\nHowever, it only took Allocine's CEO Gr\u00E9goire Lassalle a few hours to publish a press release that denies any imminent plans.\u00A0Still, he doesn't entirely rule out sale as an option, the financial newspaper Les Echos\u00A0reports:\r\n&amp;quot;If Mister Google comes to me tomorrow and tells me they want to buy my company, we'll see,&amp;quot; Lassalle said, acknowledging that while Tiger Global &amp;quot;isn't in a rush,&amp;quot; it is still, &amp;quot;as any fund,&amp;quot; looking for a buyer. But &amp;quot;let's succeed in our projects for the next two years and, well, we'll see.&amp;quot;\r\nAs you may know, Allocine has been growing quite fast. In 2007, its site had 4.6m unique visitors per month, and was only starting to expand outside France.\r\n\r\nFive years later, the company now operates web and mobile film portals under different brands (Screenrush, Adoro Cinema, Mtime, etc) and in several countries (including Brazil, China, Germany, Russia and the UK). In total, its combination of movie session times and film trailers attracts 40m unique visitors per month across the world.\r\n\r\n\r\n'Au revoir,' Allocine TV\r\nAccording to Le Figaro, Allocine's financial results are also quite good, with a \u20AC28m annual turnover and revenues of \u20AC8m in 2011.\u00A0Yet, it also made an apparent mistake when it decided to invest heavily in its own cable and satellite TV channel,\u00A0Allocine TV, which launched in France last September.\r\n\r\nYesterday, Allocine officially announced that the channel would soon close, a decision that certainly contributed to speculations that Tiger Global was mulling to sell the company.\r\n\r\nWhen asked about the reasons for this failure, Lassalle pointed out two factors: French regulation, which doesn't allow TV channels to air movies on Saturday evenings, and a depressed and fragmented TV advertising market.\r\n\r\nWhile Allocine had already invested \u20AC5m in this project, it would have needed at least 5 to 7 years to break even; as a result, both Tiger Global and Lassalle agreed to shutter Allocine TV, Le Figaro explains.\r\nWhat's next\r\n\r\n\r\nNo matter whether or not Allocine is up for sale, the company has now decided to focus on its international growth, on which it hopes to heavily rely to reach 50m monthly unique visitors and a \u20AC50m annual turnover.\r\n\r\nAccording to Le Figaro, it also wants to capitalize on the fact that its smartphone apps have already been downloaded 2.5m times, and monetize this film-focused audience.\r\n\r\nAs a matter of fact, Allocine plans to launch a free VOD platform during the last quarter of 2012, as well as a TV guide, Lassalle said in an interview.\r\n\r\nCould these ambitious plans lure a buyer? Only time will tell, but both the rumor and its tepid denial certainly attracted attention to the company."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/03/29/cinema-info-company-allocine-denies-rumors-that-tiger-global-is-putting-it-up-for-sale/mtime/>