BotD: Ita goes to war; Nine profits fall again
Welcome to a Best of the Day wrap from Unmade. Tonight: Former ABC chair Ita Buttrose launches a nuclear attack on her managing director David Anderson; Nine’s soft results are still a pleasant surprise for the market; the Unmade Index moves up again.
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Today: Poison at the top of the ABC; Nine profits slump
Ita goes to war on Anderson
For a second time running, the relationship between the ABC’s chair and managing director has ended in poisonous recriminations.
Ita Buttrose, whose term as chair of the ABC ended last March, has put her name to an extraordinary legal affidavit which Crikey described today as “one of the most astonishing clashes in Australian media in a generation, with very real consequences for one or both parties”.
In the extraordinary affidavit, relating to Buttrose and Anderson’s contrasting recollections around the Antoinette Lattouf unlawful dismissal case, she specifically accuses her former colleague of lying. To be clear, Unmade does not make this allegation, only that this is the position of Buttrose.
The disintegration of the relationship between Buttrose and Anderson carries parallels with the recriminations and contrasting claims that accompanied the exit of previous ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie and previous chairman Justin Milne in 2018.
Nine profit slides but still pleasantly surprises the market
Nine’s revenue increased slightly but profits slumped again in the company’s half-year results, reported today.
Revenue was up 1% to $1.39bn, but profits fell 15% to $268m. Nine’s first half profits are the worst in the company’s history apart from the early months of Covid.
However, the results release has become the sideshow, thanks to the CoStar bid to buy Domain. The results were also slightly better than the market expected.
Unmade Index nudged up by Nine
The Unmade Index moved further into positive territory today, thanks to Nine’s half-year result slightly outperforming market expectations.
Nine closed the day up 4%, taking it to a market capitalisation of $2.7bn, the stock’s best performance since last March. Meanwhile, the price of Nine’s 60%-owned real estate platform Domain also rose, with investors beginning to assume that the CoStar takeover bid will come to fruition.
Ooh Media also built on yesterday’s growth, rising by another 2.4%.
Meanwhile, Seven West Media, which fell by 1.7%, and Southern Cross Austereo, which lost 3.4%, were both in negative territory.
The Unmade Index closed up by 2.02% for the day to land on 572 points.
Time to leave you to your Tuesday.
If you only read one other thing tonight, make it Ita’s affidavit. The judge will have to decide whether her claims are credible, but it’s the sort of document that doesn’t come along very often.
Have a great night.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade & Mumbrella
tim@unmade.media
