Ann: SALE AND RECAPITALISATION OF TEN, page-68

Another day, another story. Looks like the ASA is going in to battle for some of the shareholders on this one. Note Murdoch and Gordon now trying to play the 'good guys' card.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...l/news-story/5d4d0dd27f6f8410f0a3831a1939d44e
Ten shareholders consider class action over CBS deal

Ten Network shareholders are considering a class action against the broadcaster as they face receiving no compensation for their stock after US media giant CBS swooped in to buy the media company.
Preliminary talks between law firms and the Australian Shareholders Association about a class action have taken place after some Ten shareholders contacted the group and expressed their concerns.

“Class actions are very difficult and whether that is a possibility or if it’s not, it’s really too early to say,” ASA director Allan Goldin said.

CBS aims to hold 100 per cent of Ten by settling the broadcaster’s debts, including $98 million to the Commonwealth Bank and $33m to investors including James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon, but shareholders will get nothing for their stock. Both Mr Murdoch and Mr Gordon have pointed out that the deal to sell Ten to CBS is a bad outcome for shareholders.

Under their competing bid, shareholders would have kept 25 per cent of their equity, with Ten relisted.
“Shareholders would have shared in any upside,” a spokesman for Mr Murdoch’s private investment vehicle Illyria said this week.

“Under the CBS bid they lose everything.”

Mr Goldin said the ASA had written to Treasurer Scott Morrison asking that CBS amend its offer so that shareholders did not miss out.

“What the results of that will be we do not know,” Mr Goldin said, adding that the current media laws made it “almost impossible” for an Australian to bid.

News of the possible legal action came as Foxtel chief executive Peter Tonagh welcomed CBS’s entry into the Australian media industry.

“They’ve got a long history in this marketplace and the one thing I know, having spoken to the CBS team, is they don’t see this as a short-term investment,” Mr Tonagh said yesterday in response to a question at a business lunch in Melbourne.

“They see it as a long-term investment to build the business in Australia and I think that can only be good for the industry.”

Delivering a speech in Melbourne to the The American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, Mr Tonagh revealed that Foxtel was enjoying some early success following a radical corporate makeover in July and the launch of streaming service Foxtel Now.

Foxtel has been repositioned to reflect the introduction of cheaper subscription packages that don’t require a cable or satellite connection as the company responds to new competitors such as Netflix.

“July was the biggest sales month in the history of Foxtel. The further good news is that while most of that growth was from Foxtel Now, our cable and satellite numbers grew at a better than expected rate and churn from our broadcast product was almost two percentage points lower than at the same time last year.”

Of the government’s push to pass the media reform bill, Mr Tonagh said the package has Foxtel’s support even though it did not contain “much immediate benefit” for the company.

Amid moves by Amazon, Google’s YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and telcos to buy sports rights for their platforms in other markets, Mr Tonagh said the anti-siphoning rules were hopelessly out of date as they did not stop these tech giants from acquiring local sports.

“I hope that it does not take something like Amazon acquiring exclusive rights to the Australian Open Tennis before everyone realises that the scheme should be radically reduced in size to the truly iconic events and must be extended to the telcos and tech giants to create a level playing field for all.”

News Corp, publisher of The Australian, and Telstra plan to combine Foxtel and Fox Sports into a sports and entertainment pay-TV player ahead of a stock market float.

“Both businesses are financially strong, but the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts and being completely commercially aligned will create an even stronger business as we confront the ongoing disruption in our industry.”