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Bruce Gordon loses TEN court challenge

Creditors meeting to proceed tomorrow as WIN mogul loses crucial court case for control of TEN.

WIN Corp mogul Bruce Gordon has lost a crucial court challenge in the battle for TEN with the NSW Supreme Court today ruling in favour of administrators KordaMentha.

Gordon, through his companies WIN Corporation and Birketu, had hoped to stop a creditors meeting taking place tomorrow, claiming KordaMentha failed to give creditors vital information about his joint bid with Lachlan Murdoch.

But the court ruled KordaMentha had provided enough information as well as satisfactory reasons for backing CBS.

Late last week the senate voted to pass media reforms legislation but Fairfax reports Justice Black said he had “not had regard to commercial developments which may have occurred after the hearing was completed and judgment reserved” because the parties did not seek to have a further hearing.

“While that approach may seem artificial, it reflects the fundamental proposition that a court must reach its decision on the evidence led by the parties at the hearing before it,” he said.

Justice Black said the question for the court was “not, and should not be, which of any competing commercial proposals put by interested parties would be most advantageous to the creditors of the TEN Group companies” including employees and shareholders.

“That is a matter properly left for their decision,” he said.

A spokesman for KordaMentha said the creditors’ meeting would go ahead tomorrow.

Lachlan Murdoch and Gordon submitted a revised offer for the network on Friday, which they hope will be put to creditors tomorrow.

9 Responses

  1. It means that KordaMentha will put the CBS bid to vote of creditors tomorrow, including CBS. CBS needs the majority of the debt and the majority of the creditors on its side.

    Gordon argument that after he sold his debt and voting rights to CBS, their debt should be reduced to $0 or $1, while his own revised bid for Ten was saying CBS should get $20m a part payment on $200m of unsecured credit was preposterous.

  2. Likely a good outcome, it should mean CBS will get TEN in the Metro areas and Gordon hold onto the affiliates in the regional areas. Given that by the new media laws any media company owned by a foreign enity will not get the allocated monetary help from the Government, like how the Guardian Australia has been denied that funding because it is seen as foreign owned.

    Of course CBS could just decide to splash some cash around and buy up some media in regional areas if they want to. Well I think it is just monetary as it was a bit of a long complicated read and I think it doesn’t include that the reach rules stay the same if the company is owned by a foreign company.

    1. The argument that Government should be paying a multinational media empire to help them drive the SMH and The Age out of business, just as a way to hide subsiding left wing journalism for Xenophon’s base to read, was never going to fly. It is surprising that Xenophon needed that to be pointed out to him.

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