UPC Will Buy Rest of SBS Broadcasting

United Pan-Europe Communications, Europe’s second-largest cable-television company, has agreed to buy the 77% of SBS Broadcasting it doesn’t already own for $2.8 billion in cash and stock. UPC offered $40 cash and 0.19048 of a UPC share for each share of SBS, which owns TV and radio stations in 10 European countries. Harry Evans Sloan, a Los Angeles native who founded SBS after selling New World Entertainment to financier Ronald Perelman, will join UPC’s supervisory board. Amsterdam-based UPC, which is controlled by Denver-based UnitedGlobalCom, says the bid values SBS at $85.14 a share, 49% more than SBS’ closing price Wednesday. SBS is recommending UPC’s bid to its shareholders. The acquisition would give UPC access to programming and other media content it can broadcast on its own cable network and its Internet service provider, Chello. Shares in SBS closed unchanged at $72.50 on Nasdaq.