Morphin Mogul: Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban has a new TV empire to play with in Germany

He's probably the biggest media mogul you've never heard of. Born in Egypt and reared in Israel, Haim Saban is the self-made billionaire who turned an offbeat Japanese kids' TV show into a global franchise: the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He lives on a six-acre estate in Beverly Hills, Calif., and keeps a fairly low profile. So why is he buying a group of major German TV networks and a film library?

Friends say the deal is "vintage Haim"--referring to the man's renowned eye for value, negotiating skills and colorful Yiddish shtick. "Bubeleh, let's make a deal; I feel it in my kishke," he'll say, referring to his gut. The assets were being auctioned off by the bankrupt German firm KirchMedia, which failed after owner Leo Kirch overexpanded into pay TV and sports programming. Saban was a dark horse, competing against global media giants like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. But by early this year, Saban had talked his way into Germany's insular media community and, with a $2 billion offer, snagged the prize. "Haim never takes no for an answer," says Shuki Levy, a longtime friend.

After evaluating Kirch's assets for more than a year, Saban, 58, hopped to Germany in January when Kirch's creditors appeared to be near a deal with a German bidder. With a team of advisers, Saban set out to convince creditors, regulators and politicians that he was the best buyer. He knew that another rich American, media mogul John Malone, had tried in 2001 to buy a group of TV networks from Deutsche Telekom, Germany's major cable operator, but had been blocked by regulators in part because he was perceived as arrogant and unbending. Saban played the charmer. To regulators concerned about foreign control of media assets, he promised not to inject his political views into the business. To creditors, he stressed that his experience in foreign-rights sales gave him the know-how to grow Kirch's licensing business.

To Kirch executives, however, Saban acted as if he were running the place even before he bought it. When he summoned the bosses of Kirch's TV networks for interviews, he would occasionally address one of his lieutenants in Hebrew, assuming no one else would understand. He was startled when one Kirch honcho shot back, "I know what you're saying." (This account, confirmed by three sources close to the talks, was denied by a spokeswoman for Saban.)

With $1 billion in cash, Saban could get the deal done fast. Other potential suitors, including Murdoch and Italian magnate Silvio Berlusconi, were hobbled by concerns that they might use Kirch's networks to forward their political views. German media giant Bertelsmann didn't bid because of antitrust problems. The only other serious bidder, a German publisher, didn't have Saban's TV experience and faced regulatory pressures. By late February, Saban's mostly cash offer was a virtual lock.

A seasoned underdog, Saban grew up so poor that his family shared a communal bathroom with streetwalkers in a Tel Aviv apartment building. After stints playing bass in a rock band and promoting concerts, he moved to Paris in 1975. One day he was watching an English-language TV show and realized the theme music might be popular on French radio. He could buy the foreign rights to such tunes for a pittance, he discovered, and by the early '80s, he was licensing entire shows, mostly for kids.