Lachlan Murdoch’s AUS$3.3 billion bid to take Australia’s Consolidated Media Holdings private has collapsed. The deal would have meant a 50/50 JV with CMH chair James Packer and would have given Murdoch interests in TV outfit Foxtel, the Nine Network, the NineMSN web JV and Carsales.com.au. FT.com reports Packer rejected changes to the financial structure of the deal.
Murdoch’s latest private equity partner Providence (the original partner balked at the large debt owned by CMH’s Nine Network) reportedly wanted to reduce the bid from AUS$4.60 Australian dollars ($4.24) per share, though Packer insisted on AUS$4.80. Forbes: “In a letter sent to Consolidated Media Holdings on Monday, Murdoch’s private investment firm Illyria said it could not proceed with its bid, which was valued at roughly 3.2 billion Australian dollars ($2.9 billion), due to ‘material changes in the overall transaction terms’”