LONDON: News Corp technology arm NDS Group has responded to the latest suit filed against it by Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan's satellite group, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems. "NDS has categorically rejected these allegations in the past and has motions pending to have the case dismissed," a company statement says.

The lawsuit which began with Canal Plus Technologies (CPT) of France alleging that NDS helped fund hackers who published secrets on the Internet about its pay-TV technology, was soon followed by another lawsuit by DirecTV, which blamed NDS of breach of contract, fraud, breach of warranty and misappropriation of trade secrets.

"Measat, a customer of Canal+ Technologies, has filed a motion to intervene in the Canal+ action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on the basis of the same allegations claimed by Canal+ in its action."

"On 1 October Canal+ and NDS agreed to stay all proceedings in the action until the closing of the acquisition of Telepiu by News Corporation, at which time the lawsuit will be dismissed with prejudice," the statement goes on to say.

Recently , NDS filed a countersuit which alleges that DirecTV Enterprises and a chip manufacturer had misappropriated NDS' trade secrets and proprietary information, conspired to infringe NDS' patents, colluded to create unfair competition and breached agreements and licenses restricting the use of NDS' intellectual property.

The Measat suit followed a day after NDS countersued DirecTV.

MEASAT's entry into the proceedings adds a new twist to this ongoing saga as Canal Plus was to have dropped its suit as part of a deal struck earlier this month when its parent company, Vivendi Communications, sold its Italian pay-TV operation, Telepi, to News Corp.

NDS has repeatedly denied all allegations, which its says are "baseless and motivated by a desire on the part of certain persons and entities to cause harm to NDS and to thwart legitimate competition from NDS".