21st Century Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has joined challengers to block the acquisition and takeover of Channel Ten by rival US media giant CBS.
Both American broadcasting behemoths faced off in the courtroom, battling control of Channel Ten, despite the network seeing long declines in ratings and advertising revenue.
21st Century Fox and CBS are Channel Ten’s largest creditors.
New South Wales State Supreme Court Judge, Ashley Black, allowed 21st Century Fox to join in shareholder Bruce Gordon’s action, which states the term of CBS’s proposal is deemed unfair.
Lawyer Ian Pike informed the court, “They are getting 100 cents in the dollar and we seem to be getting 1.75 cents in the dollar”.
Bruce Gordon’s lawyer, Andrew Bell, informed the court that the concern was KordaMentha administrators had “made the decision not to put the competing (offer) to the creditors”.
Fox Executive Chairman, Lachlan Murdoch, states they were willing to revise their offer made for the network in June, only to be pushed aside by CBS.
Murdoch and Gordon have informed Ten overnight on Monday that they “wish to in some way [to] reopen their offer by opening negotiations”, as informed by Channel Ten lawyer Richard McHugh to the court.
Whilst Gordon’s offer has not been disclosed, Mr McHugh states he has not been provided anything which could be put forward to creditors.
