Spanish media conglomerate PRISA is looking to expand into North America, and has made its first move to do so by acquiring a 12 percent stake in U.S. Hispanic TV network V-me Media Inc., Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed; however PRISA did say it "provides for the future takeover" of V-me, which is ranked third, behind Univision and Telemundo, in national household broadcast distribution, according to the broadcaster.

"This investment represents an aggressive U.S. step forward in PRISA's consumer-centric global strategy of delivering relevant content through multiplatform distribution to the entire Portuguese and Spanish speaking world," Juan Luis Cebrián, CEO of PRISA, said in a statement.

The acquisition was done "through an asset swap for a Bolivian media company," a source told Dow Jones, which also noted that the deal was a surprise to investors, due to PRISA's a hefty debt load.