The Kyle news seems to have gone down well - ARN shares up 31% on yesterday and now pretty well above where it was before the incident.
ARN is selling Cody Hong Kong to DFI Retail Group for $5.6 million.
https://radioinfo.com.au/news/arn-to-divest-itself-of-non-core-asset-cody-hong-kong/
I think someone is trying to generate clickbait.
“ARN Media is tanking, lets say that its a takeover target for [insert random company here]”
Sounds like clickbait, smells like clickbait.
The advantages of an ARN purchase for Sports Entertainment Group
The news, a week ago, that Sports Entertainment Group (SEG) had outbid Nova Entertainment to acquire NZ radio and podcast network MediaWorks landed with a ripple rather than an explosion. This is likely because most of us don’t listen across both countries. An entity known for its sports entering a binding agreement to buy a network of music stations should sound fairly incongruous, like Ikea buying Woolworths. But there’s method in the madness of the debt taken on for the purchase, and possibly truth to the rumours that next up is a tilt at ARN, or parts thereof.
Radioinfo proving once again that in a world of AI slop, the human art of writing badly is still alive and well.
I’ve been saying this for a while, but I still think it makes sense for Nova and SEG to make a joint bid for ARN and carve it up between them. The article kind of supports my view that SEG would be primarily after Gold/Cruise.
- NE can pick up 97.3 and 102.3 for Smooth
- SEG takes on Gold in Sydney and Melbourne, and Cruise (and 5AA) in Adelaide.
- SEG might be interested in KIIS in Sydney and Melbourne (and divest their AM stations in Sydney/Melbourne) or if not KIIS could be sold off to a 3rd party
- The only sticking point might be Perth where both SEG and NE would want 96fm
- Of the regionals, I could see SEG wanting River 94.9 and Hot 91 to complement SEN693
GOLD Sport will actually be SPORT under SEN ownership.
Taking aim at something your company is clearly heavily invested in probably isn’t the cleverest move, is it? Could be much worse though—the company could potentially be acquired by a sports-focused radio entity. Could you imagine if that actually hap—oh, wait…
I don’t think they’re they heavily invested. They get a small profit share once Kyle’s subscriptions go over a certain amount. They’d stand to make far more money if Kyle tanked and they could redirect those listeners back to KIIS (or Gold).
SEG pulling away from ARN interest
It would appear that Sports Entertainment Group (SEG)’s purchase of NZ broadcast network MediaWorks means that their interest in ARN, who own the KIIS and GOLD networks as well as regional stations around Australia, has had to be put aside.
The Australian have reported that SEG have offloaded the 5% interest in ARN they have acquired across this year.
Nine Entertainment seems like the only logical acquirer of ARN now, aside from Private Equity.
Perhaps. But I still think there’s a chance for a joint bid from Nova and SEG. Nova picks up the FM’s in Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Perth, and SEG at least gets Gold in Sydney and Melbourne, along with 5AA and Cruise in Adelaide.