“One company”: Nine, Fairfax deal passes final hurdle.
Federal Court approves takeover bid as two media giants become one.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
The Federal Court has approved a takeover of Fairfax Media by Nine Entertainment Co., the final hurdle in the merging of two media giants.
Nine will own iconic mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, 100% ownership of Stan and majority ownership of Domain (60%) and Macquarie Media (54.5%) (including 2UE, 2GB, 3AW).
In a note to staff, Nine CEO Hugh Marks said, “This remarkable merger draws together the quality, strengths, assets and reach of two of Australia’s most famous and successful brands to produce one business – which shapes as one of the largest and most diverse media organisations in the country.”
The Federal Court approval ends attempts by former Domain CEO Antony Catalano to prevent the deal, despite recent shareholder approval.
“This deal is all about our strategy for the future together and it promises exciting opportunities for our employees, our clients and our audiences,” Marks continued. “Together we will provide our audiences with the best of entertainment and quality journalism on the platform they choose.
“As one company.”
The merger is expected to be completed on Friday, December 7 with first day of operation of the new-look company on Monday December 10.
Fairfax Media will cease to trade on the ASX after nearly 180 years as a publishing company.
12 Responses
I will stop buying The Age when this merger goes through, because I know it will be “dumbed down” by Nine. And what about their so-called “current affairs” programs such as A Current Affair, which had nothing on this threat to democracy in Australia (but plenty of time for a tradie who had a sex change, which has no impact on our lives). I personally believe that the silence from A Current Affair (which is supposed to be a “current affairs” program) on this issue is deafening.
Front page of The Age after the takeover “A couple from Married at First Sight gets divorced”.
… you mean as opposed to today’s “Featured” story – “‘I wouldn’t get this role today’: Will & Grace’s straight ‘gay’ star”?
No. I was referring to the story about the ACA story from earlier this year about the tradie who had a sex change (this Will & Grace story that you refer to is news to me).
I fear with this takeover, papers like The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Canberra Times will be dumbed down and trivia will fill the pages at the expense of actual content about world-changing events.
Oh, I may have misunderstood your post. Sorry about that.
I just fear the Fairfax newspapers will be dragged down to the level of 9. It’ll be a sorry day.
Waiting for the staff cuts/asset right offs and property sharing.
Will be interesting to see what happens.
In Perth Seven bought The West Australian then were allowered to purchase The Sunday Times. All papers in Perth owned by the Seven Network.The Watchdog allowed this to happen.
Now now, let’s all wait 6-12 months to see if it really will be “non-stop Nine propaganda”, as Sully puts it. I’m already thinking of removing the Nein channels from my favourites list as I can’t stand the ads, and the way for decades they have treated their audience with contempt in terms of program scheduling. That’s my opinion, anyway.
Woo hoo! Yay! Just what we all crave. Get ready for more Tony Jones and Peter Hitchener on 3AW, expect Jennifer Keyte (now at Ten) regular Friday Denis Walter segment to be swiftly dumped and non-stop Nine propaganda, especially tennis promos all summer. Sorry for the cynical tone, but this isn’t good.
Funnily enough, Neil Mitchell has already been on Today for years and TJ and Hitch have been doing their segments / fill-in for years too. So already had a Nine centric relationship if you aks me.
Interesting times ahead. All will be similar on 2GB in Sydney no doubt too.
It’s not as simple as that. You overlook that Neil Mitchell has done Sunrise, that Nick McCallum (Seven) does 3AW, that Basil Zempilas does 6PR etc. When the merger was mooted Hugh Marks indicated no plans for Basil to depart 6PR.
True. Fair enough.
I expressed my concern Seven and Ten personalities may disappear from Macquarie radio here a while ago but then I remembered several Herald Sun columnists appear on 3AW and the Herald Sun is of course a direct rival of Fairfax’s The Age. That may be a precedent.