Sarah leading Chris around the field like a sheep here.
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Liam Doran must be on the newstalk payroll by now. The cunt is on most days.
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@Julio_Geordio, @TreatyStones, @gilgamboa - can you add to my possibly inaccurate summary of what’s going on with Newstalk and INM?
As far as I know and/or can tell:
- DOB won an INM boardroom battle with Tony O’Reilly and family some years back. I think he’s the biggest individual shareholder but does he have a controlling interest?
- I presume he does as he’s appointed his own people to the board in the intervening years.
- There’s been a public row between board members over their acquisition strategy and it’s been covered by the Irish Times and Sunday Business Post.
- The CEO Robert Pitt and the Chairman Leslie Buckley are at loggerheads.
- INM considered a bid for Newstalk (also owned by DOB) but they couldn’t agree on an acquisition price.
- Pitt seemingly favoured a bid price obtained by himself via Davy’s (lower) while Buckley felt the price sought by Newstalk via IBI was fairer (higher).
- It’s separately been reported that INM are looking to “slash” staff pension entitlements and close the DB scheme at present.
- I guess the fact they’re sitting on a cash pile, want to invest for growth and are potentially going to buy a DOB company (thus expanding his coffers) while simultaneously staff may be set for material financial losses isn’t going to go down well with the latter.
- What’s the purpose of one controlled DOB entity potentially purchasing another one anyway(s)?
- Gervaise Slowey, Communicorp CEO (company which owns Newstalk and other DOB controlled stations including Today FM, 98 FM), resigned the other day too.
- Is this connected?
- Is it because Communicorp performance has fallen below expectation or is she being lined up to replace the chap at INM?
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Lots of questions. I don’t know full ins and outs but I’d imagine they wish to aquire newstalk because it will add cash flows and value to INM and that is probably the simplest way for DOB to extract the value in NT without relinquishing control over it.
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That’s a bit Ger Gilroyish there, mate.
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Regard the battle won v TOR would TOR well documented financial troubles made that victory easy ???
Is Newstalk haemorrhaging cash ??
Does INM still have a DB pension scheme for new entrants ??
Is this a euphemism or do you think my post is cuntish?
Don’t know if it’s hemorrhaging but it was certainly loosing money up to this year anyway
As I understand it Denis does not own INM but he has 30% of the share holding and as such is in control of it. It would be very difficult given the amount of retail investors and the small stakes held by larger institutional investors to go against him.
Leslie Buckley is O’Briens right hand man, sits in the board of digicel etc. He is ridiculously conflicted in the transaction. It’s absolute madness that he was even anywhere near it. He was looking for the higher price to suit O’Brien rather than seeking to protect INM’s interests as its chairman. You can be barred from directorships for less.
O’Brien is basically looking for a company he owns 30% to buy a company he owns 100% of, at a potentially inflated price. That’s before even getting into whether Newstalk would actually be a good business for INM to buy.
O’Brien is looking to do this for several reasons I’d imagine, eventually a government with some form of a spine is going to say it’s not healthy for one man to own every single national independent media news outlet in the country. This preempts that move as he doesn’t technically own INM.
Also there’s constant rumours that he isn’t the most liquid, with all his assets tied up and heavily leveraged so this was probably to free up some cash. The pulled digicel flotation was meant to have put him under a bit of pressure, though that would seem exaggerated since he’s been in no rush back to market now that conditions are better.
And maybe most importantly newstalk hasn’t really been a success for him. If he gets rid of it he won’t shed too many tears, the fact that he’ll still be more or less in control of it so that they won’t exactly look to take him on helps too.
Not sure about the resignation of the newstalk one but I doubt she’s coming back into the tent anytime soon. Be no need to resign if you’d a new job coming up, I’ll speculatively say she thought the deal to INM was going through and didn’t like the implications of the restructuring.
Re DB scheme. No company will be keeping a DB scheme open going forward if they can help it all. Even just from an accounting point of view they are very expensive with regard to reserves you need to hold against them, constantly need to be topping them up when markets are down etc. Even the civil service will get that rug pulled from under them at some stage, though I doubt there’s a politician with the balls to take it on until it’s bankrupted the country (about 20 years time or so). INM have the cash to top it up and cut it off at the minute and with markets high now is an opportune time to do so. Obviously no one is happy about having that sweet heart deal taken off them so the workers are sour. They won’t be able to out vote DOB though particularly when other shareholders would be on his side on this one.
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I’d guess he thinks it’s rambling, long winded and just an attempt to show your knowledge in the area.
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I don’t know for definite - I think it’s EBITDA* postive but loss making overall. But advertisers are increasingly moving to online platforms like Facebuuukkke and radio was always less popular than TV to begin with so I’m not sure how the main generator of income is holding up. But those quarterly JNLR / listenership polls always state that Irish people’s appetite for radio content remains as strong as ever, even in the wake of new technogoly / offerings like Spotify etc. That said, are you going to want to continue advertising in the Paul Williams advertising slot?
*earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (cc @TreatyStones)
That’s a very good post. Reading back on it, the format and tone is like one of @mickee321 's posts about historical Jew / Arab football rivalries.
INM have spent the last ten odd years or so pivoting into their online presence to defend themselves from the fact that print media is dying. The fact that they have scraped through and come out the other side and are now looking to diversify into one of the few mediums left with as little shelf as print media is the most bizarre thing in this transaction. They’ll be going into DVD sales next
I think they bought out the DB scheme in full
He nailed me good and proper alright.
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Yeah, the celeb-focused picture based content, click bait articles, and online only content which completely rehashes what nobodies have been tweeting is following the Daily Mail model in every respect.
I think yourself and @gilgamboa are probably right in that he wants to wrap Newstalk up into INM to derive more value from the radio investment, get a bit of cash for it and to make the case that his control of the media is less than what it actually is.
INM and Communicorp are worth nowhere near what he paid for him, but these investments weren’t made on financial grounds only*.
- ha ha!
I had it on this morning as I was flicking through the channels and there was some talk as to whether it was Santa or Santy. Shane and whatever your ones name were on. Shane read out a text:
“In the northside it’s Santo”
“I’ve lived on the Northside and I’ve never heard him called Santo”, says Shane pure serious.
“No me neither” says the other one.
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I dont get it
You wouldn’t mate