Alma is Jorma Ollila’s secret love

MONEY TALKS

Jorma Ollila

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By Katri Kallionpää
     
      Over two hundred Alma Media shareholders have a tough decision to ponder tomorrow: they are supposed to authorise the company’s Board of Directors to sell television channels MTV3 and Subtv, as well as radio station Radio Nova, to Swedish companies Bonnier and Proventus.
      Although some small shareholders will grumble about the decision in the shareholders’ meeting, they will be left in the minority. Three in four of those who hold voting rights have already announced that they will grant the necessary divestment authority to the Board. (The article was published on Sunday, but everything happened at Monday's meeting as was expected).
     
The opponents of the plan received some surprising support from a powerful source when Nokia Chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila spoke in an unusually passionate manner against selling MTV3, Subtv, and Radio Nova abroad on television late last week.
      Ollila feels that MTV is a part of our cultural heritage. "It must be taken care of", Ollila cried.
      "To me it is extremely strange and unusual that we have handled our industrial and societal policies in such a way that there are no investors, capital, interest, or entrepreneurs to be found in Finland to buy a Finnish television channel that is about to be sold abroad."
      At the same time, Ollila underscored that Nokia management has "a strong drive to remain a Finnish company".
     
Ollila’s emotional outburst was rare, and his gestures spoke plenty.
      Why does MTV3 in particular tick Ollila off, with similar deals with foreign firms occurring regularly?
      Nokia’s love for the television business dates back to over ten years ago, to the days when Nokia itself was an electronics firm with a wide product range.
      Although Nokia’s strategy has since taken it elsewhere, it has long been one of the most important shareholders of MTV. Ollila himself held a seat on the Board of the MTV group in the mid-1990s, and even served as its Chairman.
     
So in fact, Ollila himself participated in creating Alma Media when the Aamulehti publishing group and the MTV group merged in 1997. Nokia was a significant Alma Media shareholder with a stake of 5.7 percent.
      At that precise moment, Alma relinquished its little finger to the Swedes, as it became the largest single shareholder of Swedish television company TV4 in that connection.
      Nokia and television companies could have a common future in the world of digital television as well. Nokia’s multimedia unit and MTV3 have joint research projects. Besides, Arne Wessberg, who will soon step down as the Director-General of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, continues to be a member of the Nokia Board of Directors.
     
After Ollila’s outburst, Alma Media CEO Juho Lipsanen’s explanations, and in particular his satisfaction with the proposal of the Alma Media Board, seem quite odd.
      According to Lipsanen, the division of Alma is "a defensive victory in the battle against a subsidiary economy", as well as a way to retain "a multivalued press in our own hands".
      In other words, Alma Media’s tactics are those of a salamander: when a salamander is threatened by danger, it drops its tail and flees. But in Alma’s case one can ask whether the salamander sacrificed more than its tail – if not quite its head, at least its legs.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 30.1.2005
     
     
Translator's Note: The possibly obscure headline perhaps deserves a note. "Secret love" (salarakas in Finnish) became a much-used tabloid expression towards the end of 2004, as countless B-list celebrities were revealed to have secret lovers, sometimes beyond their more official relationships. The secrecy of the lover was of course moot, since the name and face was plastered across the front pages of the papers, but the term became a short-lived Finnish buzzword. Alma (from Alma Media) is also a woman's name.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Alma Media wants to sell MTV3 to Swedes (25.1.2005)
  Nearly all shareholders back sale of MTV3 to Sweden (1.2.2005)

KATRI KALLIONPÄÄ / Helsingin Sanomat
katri.kallionpaa@hs.fi