Billionaires Graveyard!, page-27

Geeze this has become relentless. Even I'm surprised now. But looking at the dates they (lazard) were selling, it hardly seems like they were desperate to exit, otherwise they would have fully unloaded?

I finally took the plunge around 24c, but that could prove to be a mistake. Firm stop at 20c for me, as i I think it breaches that then it could get to 10c, but that's crazy valuation.. I've gone tired of debating why FTA isn't dead... They have aggressively paid down debt, rev's still growing, same as mkt share, although unfortunately, so have cost's... But as AFR points out, if you strip out the write down's the loss is nowehere near as bad... Seven and Nine cannot buy TEN with current media laws and Bruce Gordon could guarantee the debts himself. I still think this is posturing, as I'm almost certain there will be media fee relief in the budget (the broadcasting license fee is completely out of step in the digital age and compared to o/s fees)... But this has become high stakes poker, and ultimately it's shareholders who are losing, and those brave among us with our smelly fingers!!

http://www.copyright link/business/...shape-the-television-industry-20170427-gvub1h

The twist

There is a twist: some rival media executives think Ten's problems aren't as bad as the company makes out.

Ten lost $232.2 million in the first half of 2017 financial year. But the loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – sometimes regarded as a proxy for cash flow – was $2.4 million. Advertising revenue is rising in a declining market, up 2.1 per cent compared to a 5.6 per cent metro market decline, and a jump in costs was due to an investment in the Survivor franchise.
"Ten's difficulties could well be contrived," one rival told The Australian Financial Review. "You could seriously sack half the Ten staff and run it out of a small warehouse."

Why talk down your business? The "failing firm argument". If the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission believes Ten is going broke, risking 600 jobs and millions of people viewing pleasure, it would be more amenable to a competition-reducing merger.