Blic

Blic is a daily middle-market tabloid newspaper in Serbia. Founded in 1996, Blic is owned by Ringier Axel Springer Media AG, a joint venture between Ringier media corporation from Switzerland and Axel Springer AG from Germany.

The joint Swiss-German entity owns and operates Blic through its local subsidiary Ringier Axel Springer d.o.o. (formerly Blic Press d.o.o. and Ringier d.o.o.), a limited liability company.

Ownership history

The initial owners of Blic, Austria-based businessmen Aleksandar Lupšić and Peter Kelbel, sold the paper along with its parent company Blic Press d.o.o. in November 2000 to Gruner + Jahr, a German publishing firm majority-owned by the Bertelsmann conglomerate, right after the October 5th overthrow in Serbia. Initially, G+J bought 49% stake in Blic Press d.o.o., but eventually bought the remaining stake as well.

In March 2003, Gruner + Jahr sold its 25.1% stake in Blic Press d.o.o. to Vienna Capital Partners (VCP) while retaining the remaining 74.9%.

After buying 74.9% stake in Blic Press d.o.o. from Gruner+Jahr in January 2004,Ringier AG assigned Attila Mihók to be the CEO of its new Serbian subsidiary that got renamed Ringier d.o.o. He performed the job until November 2007 and was in July 2008 succeeded by Jelena Drakulić.

Specsavers

Specsavers Optical Group Ltd is an optical retail chain, operating globally, which offers optician services, along with eyeglasses, contact lenses and hearing aids. In 2012 it had the largest single market share of the four major opticians with 42% of the UK market. The company had a total turnover of £1.5 billion in 2010/2011 and £1.7 billion in 2012, with 1,648 branches in the United Kingdom, Guernsey, Jersey, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand.

History and market position

Specsavers are a high street opticians, selling spectacles, contact lenses and hearing aids. The group was launched in 1984 by husband and wife team Doug Perkins and Mary Perkins on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel and at the end of 2007 the group had over 1,390 stores with 26,000 employees. As well as stores in the UK, they are present in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Spain and most recently Australia and New Zealand. The company ventured into hearing services in 2002. Their Hearing Centres division provides hearing tests and hearing aids within the Specsavers optical stores providing services from more than 400 locations.

Brian Lara International Cricket 2007

Brian Lara International Cricket 2007 is a cricket computer game from Codemasters available on PlayStation 2, PC and Xbox 360 (Also Xbox Live enabled). It is endorsed by West Indian cricketer Brian Lara. It follows Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 released 2 years earlier. It was released on 23 March 2007 during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, which is a similar launch tactic used by Codemasters for the release of Brian Lara International Cricket 2005, which was launched on the first day of the 2005 Ashes series. The game was released in Australia and New Zealand under the name of Ricky Ponting International Cricket 2007 and in India as Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007.

Prior to release

Codemasters Open Day

Codemasters held an open day in October 2006 which was attended by six staff members at PlanetCricket and one member from the Codemasters forum.(Jackson Nokes attended it) The seven were shown the game being developed as well as given a demo of the current alpha build. Another open day was planned for 2 March 2007 where gamers got the chance to try out the new game.