by Christo Volschenk
In an interview with a group journalist Christian Unger, CEO of Swiss media group Ringier, said in Davos, Switzerland today “2012 will be a year of acquisitions” for the company.

“We are in talks with a big company in East Europe. Furthermore, we have a long watchlist of small and medium-sized  businesses we would like to acquire,” Unger said.

Ringier finalized the acquisition of a 70-percent stake in the Slovenian internet group Azet last year. “That deal almost doubled our digital business in East Europe,” he said. Classified platforms in the Azet group include auto portals Automoto.sk and Autobazaar.sk and small ads platform Bazar.sk.

Last year Ringier also bought Swiss discount portal DeinDeal.

To a question about Ringier’s ambitions to enter the TV market, Unger replied: “We want to enter the market for television. But, first the asking prices have to change of the candidates we are investigating. We are looking in and outside Switzerland. We are in talks with two, or three players.”

Unger motivated the Ringier practice of usually buying no more than 50 percent in companies. “On the one hand we do that, because we want to be a good partner and on the other hand, because we want to profit from the know-how of the other party. For example, in ticketing there are professionals who can run the business far better than we can do it. That’s why a 50:50 joint venture often makes sense,” he said.

For the full interview, including a video (all in German), look here.