Paying up, paying out

Tannery-turned media group 4Media has signed an agreeemnt with one of TMSP's major creditors.
By : Anna Kocinska

   4Media, the tannery-turned-media group, which in March acquired the financially troubled Internet company The Mother Ship Poland (TMSP) and its portal ahoj.pl, signed an agreement with OMD Poland, one of TMSP’s creditors. On June 7, 4Media agreed to transfer within seven days zł. 400,000 to OMD’s bank account. According to Monika Sarnecka, 4Media’s PR director, the company paid the debt, which was only part of what it owed. According to the agreement, the remaining zł. 1.4 million ($350,000) was to be paid four days later. In exchange, OMD Poland, a Warsaw-based media house, agreed to drop its court proceedings against 4Media. In May OMD asked the court to secure its claim of zł. 1.55 million ($380,000) in unpaid bills after TMSP missed an April payment deadline. On May 9, the ŁódŸ Regional Court froze 4Media's bank accounts and seized some of its subsidiaries, including TMSP, TMS Auctions and Wolne Słowo, publisher of daily Życie.