At least three companies are seriously interested in taking over Dutch-based television production company Endemol, British newspaper The Times reports on Wednesday.

At present Spain’s Telefónica owns 75% of Endemol’s shares.
Dutch media tycoon John de Mol is one of the three candidates interested as part of a consortium with Mediaset, the company of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Former Endemol chief executive Tom Barnicoat, backed by private equity group Apax, and Stéphane Courbit, head of Endemol’s French arm, are the other two bidders, the paper says.
Telefónica bought Endemol from De Mol and Joop van den Ende in 2000 for €5.5bn.