Cyrte Investments, an investment fund owned by media tycoon John de Mol, is preparing a formal offer for TV production house Endemol, a company spokesman confirmed on Wednesday evening.

De Mol was one of the founders of Endemol which is currently in the hands of Spanish conglomerate Telefónica. The Spanish company bought Endemol from De Mol and Joop van den Ende in 2000 for €5.5bn and floated 25% of the shares in Amsterdam in 2005.
Telefónica announced at the beginning of March that it was putting Endemil up for sale.