It is understood that the Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica will retain control of the majority of the business, but is aiming for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange for late 2005 or early 2006.
Cesar Alierta, Telefonica chairman, said: "It will only be a percentage. The majority will be controlled by Telefonica. The important thing to create value for shareholders is to IPO Endemol sometime maybe at the end of this year ... or the beginning of next year."
Telefonica has appointed Merrill Lynch to prepare the company for flotation.
Last year the appointments of Peter Bazalgette as chief creative officer and Tom Barnicoat as deputy increased speculation that Telefonica was planning to sell Endemol, making it more attractive a prospect for US buyers with two English executive board members.
Adding fuel to the speculative fire was a report in the Spanish newspaper La Gaceta that said Time Warner executives had met bosses at Telefonica to discuss a possible deal, which put a price tag of £1.38bn on Endemol.
Other media companies linked to a possible deal were News Corp and French firm Bollore headed by French corporate raider Vincent Bollore.
Endemol and Telefonica denied reports the company was for sale at the time.
As well as making 'Big Brother' in 31 countries worlwide, Endemol has produced popular UK series including 'Changing Rooms' for BBC One and 'Fear Factor' for Sky One.
Endemol was bought by Telefonica for £3.8bn in 2000.
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