The
story began on May 7, 1997 when Lebanese shareholders in LBCI, along with Saudi
Businessman Saleh Kamel, founded the LMH company (Lebanese Media Holding) which
owns PAC ltd, LBC SAT, LBC America and LBC Europe, leaving LBCI as an independent
company owned by Lebanese shareholders only.
It
is worth mentioning that 51% of PAC and LBC SAT’s shares were owned by Lebanese
of whom Sheikh Pierre Daher was the largest shareholder.
In
2003, as a result of a settlement agreement between Saleh Kamel and al-Walid
Ben Talal, the latter replaced Kamel in LMH Company which owns 49% of LBC SAT’s
shares.
Thus, LBCI preserved the number of staff needed to run the company. The
rest of the staff joined PAC Company.
By
the end of 2008, it was decided to increase the capital by a large margin.
Accordingly, Ben Talal became the largest shareholder as he won the absolute
majority in PAC and LBC SAT provided that the increase in capital would be
invested to improve the programs network and upgrade productivity under the
supervision of Sheikh Pierre Daher.
In
2010, Rupert Murdoch joined the group and thus PAC and LBC SAT were merged with
Rotana and it seemed obvious that the cooperation between the Saudi prince and
the owner of the biggest media empire in the world, Rupert Murdoch, would
improve and develop the group. However, that never happened.