Australia's Ten TV offers Packer, Murdoch board seats
SYDNEY — Australia's Ten Network offered tycoons James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch board seats Monday and said it planned to appoint a new chairman after a major share raid which looks…
SYDNEY — Australia's Ten Network offered tycoons James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch board seats Monday and said it planned to appoint a new chairman after a major share raid which looks set to shake up the country's TV industry.Ten, one of Australia's three major commercial free-to-air stations, issued a statement to "clarify its position" on a 250-million-dollar (247 million US) swoop last month that saw Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH) raise its stake to 18 percent.There has been intense speculation that Packer, son of late tycoon Kerry Packer, intends to sell half his shares to Murdoch, whose father is News Corporation mogul Rupert Murdoch and who is a director on the News Corp board."The company welcomes the interest of CPH and Messrs Packer and Murdoch in the free-to-air television industry and, particularly, CPH's investment in Ten Holdings," Ten said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange."The company has offered Messrs Packer and Murdoch the opportunity to take two directorships on the Ten Holdings board, which it considers to be appropriate representation for this shareholding."Packer has casino interests in Australia and Macau but another of his companies, Consolidated Media Holdings, also holds a 25 percent stake in pay-TV provider Foxtel and 50 percent of the Fox Sports cable network.He effectively walked away from commercial television two years ago by selling most of his stake in rival network Nine, an empire founded by his grandfather, Frank Packer, and proudly built up by his late father, Kerry.News Corp owns the remaining 50 percent of Fox Sports and also holds 25 percent of Foxtel.The CPH raid is now before Australia's anti-trust watchdog. Ten currently runs a dedicated sports network on its second channel, One HD, providing the only direct competition to Packer and Murdoch's subscriber-only Fox Sports.The network said it would implement strict protocols on decision-making and access to information to address "any potential conflicts of interest or competition law issues
last modification 2010-11-01 05:45:35
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