Barcelona-based media group Planeta, the leading Spanish book publisher, will buy 55 percent of Casa Editorial El Tiempo for $338 million, 13 times the EBITDA of $28 million in 2006, according to Semana.

The Santos family selected Planeta, not Prisa, the publisher of El Pais. It is known that the key issue is not about money ($338 million from Planeta versus $310 million from Prisa), but the acceptance by Planeta of a nine-person board that will enable the Santos family to keep control the new company.