Seven Regional

[Trent]

ACCC approved BUT merger unlikely to go ahead.
Antony and Bruce, if they vote no as they have said they would, that would be enough to block the merger.
One of them would have to change their mind by tomorrow otherwise it is dead

[TV.Cynic]

ACMA gives prior approval for Seven West-Prime and Southern Cross transactions

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has given prior approval for a transaction that will result in breaches of the media diversity rules. The transaction involves a proposed merger between Seven West Media Ltd (Seven) and Prime Media Group Ltd (Prime).

The transaction, if it proceeds, will result in breaches of media diversity laws in six regional areas in Western Australia.

The ACMA has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Seven that it will remedy the breaches in the areas affected within a specified period. The enforceable undertaking will involve the sale of Seven’s Redwave radio network.

The ACMA has also given prior approval for a transaction that will result in breaches of the media diversity and two-to-a market radio rules. This transaction involves the purchase of the Redwave radio network in regional Western Australia by Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (Southern Cross) from Seven.

This purchase will also cause a breach of the limitation on directorships, as Southern Cross would be in a position to exercise control of more than two commercial radio broadcasting licences in Bunbury through its subsidiary Regional Broadcasters Australia Pty Limited.

To remedy these breaches, the ACMA has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from Southern Cross to divest a commercial radio licence in Bunbury.

[southernguy]

Lets hope Bruce never gets control of Prime, last thing we F-----g need in regional Australia is another blue blob saying WIN2

[littlegezzybear]

The merger was overwhelming rejected.

John Hartigan’s address before the vote, and before he stepped down. He states the company will not be paying dividends, instead they will be paying off the debt. Presumably there will be more cost cutting?

The AFR is reporting that Seven West is expected to buy Prime Media shares today. I’m guessing that some minority shareholders will be willing to sell. And:

Mr Hartigan said Prime and Seven would continue towards a transaction which would bring the two companies together.

[SydneyCityTV]

@littlegezzybear

Presumably there will be more cost cutting?

How much more cost cutting can Prime Media do? The full length kids shows were axed years ago (leaving just the 7.30pm kids goodnights for Possum & Doopa Dog over in the West) and aside from news, probably the only Prime-produced content of significance in recent years were those Ray Martin documentaries.

Even though their local news bulletins (at least from what I’ve seen) appear to be run on the smell of an oily rag as things are now, I’d hate to see them completely exit that market in favour of only running short updates everywhere.

[littlegezzybear]

John Hartigan’s opinion of Bruce Gordon and Antony Catalano:

Prime vows to push on for Seven deal after it was blocked by 'bullies'

“One of the people I ran into the other day likened it to a couple of billionaire elephants scrapping around for effectively peanuts because if you look at our market cap, it’s in the mid-$60 million,” Mr Hartigan said.

“If you look at the vote, 77 per cent of the proxies that we received before the meeting, the majority of the vote if you exclude Gordon and Catalano supported the deal,” he said. That showed the pair was “out of tune with the missions of the majority of our shareholders”, he added.
…
“Today was to be a life raft for us, and two shareholders have hijacked that opportunity so I think it’s a dreadful shame for our retail investors and a lot of our institutional [investors],” Mr Hartigan said.

He also said that there were no synergies between Prime and Australian Community Media, and that Prime and Seven would work towards putting the merger proposal back before shareholders.

[southernguy]

Sounds like Seven tried the nice road, will be interesting what happens now sounds like there determine.

[littlegezzybear]

Seven West getting 14.9% of Prime Media, for no cost, by paying with shares in Seven West.

[tonks8526]

Antony Catalano and Bruce Gordon just buying time. The merger will surely go ahead eventually.

[Jeffmister]

The big question is who they’ll merge with and under what circumstances…

[Aaron_Evans_2005]

Imagine what happens when Bruce Gordon buys Prime7…

[SydneyCityTV]

@Jeffmister

The big question is who they’ll merge with and under what circumstances…

Oh geez, now you’ve got me imagining either Catalano or Gordon doing a John Howard by saying “We’ll decide who merges with Prime and the circumstances in which they merge” or something among those lines!

[bacco007]

ACM papers today have published that Catalano welcomes Seven’s investment and that there needs to be a board shakeup (basically he want board representation)

[Leo_Puglisi6]

[Abesty]

Another lineup with 7flix:

[Zacgb]

The Demolition has begun at the former CBN 8, Prime 7 Studios in Orange, NSW. Photos: Gary Reid (Facebook)

[JasonF]

so iam assuming that we wont be getting 7mate hd for a long time even though 7mate is going hd in the metro markets on jan 16

[southernguy]

Well we know who we can blame

[southernguy]

Nine years ago yesterday since the rebrand to Prime7, time goes quick!

[TV-Expert]

Prime Media has released their Half Year Results (covering 1 July to 31 December 2019) this afternoon.

44ffk5214mvhx3.pdf

Also, its share price went as low as 13c during today before finishing the day at 14.5c, which is not much lower than where Seven West Media is now.