Last checked at 
By Liana B. Baker
March 30 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc has hired formerBlackstone Group LP advisory banker Peter Cohen as itsglobal head of media banking, the bank said in an internal memoMonday.
Cohen advised the Los Angeles Dodgers on its sale in 2012 toan investor group spearheaded by former basketball great Earvin"Magic" Johnson. Along with Barclays, he most recently advisedU.S. media company Scripps Networks Interactive on itsacquisition of a majority stake in Polish broadcaster TVN. He starts this week at Barclays' NewYork office.
A Barclays spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo.
Before joining Blackstone in 2009, Cohen was a managingdirector in the media investment banking group at J.P. MorganChase & Co.
Cohen is one of the several senior managing directors inBlackstone's mergers and acquisitions advisory arm who areleaving as the business is spun out and combined with anadvisory firm headed by star Wall Street investment banker PaulTaubman. Reuters reported that as many as half of Blackstoneadvisory's 17 senior MDs may depart ahead of the merger[ID:nL2N0WJ2O5]. (Reporting by Liana B. Baker; Editing by Peter Galloway)
