More Media Marriages and Upheaval
CNN cuts staff; Real Media finds buyer for assets; Trade Wind reaches profitability; More pressure for PCCW; Telstra sits on Keycorp; Travel.com.au disappointing.
By Luisa Bustos
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that shares in Yahoo rose 11 per cent yesterday following speculation that media company Viacom plans to buy the internet portal. Viacom owns the CBS television network, Paramount Pictures and cable networks such as MTV and Vhi. According to The Herald, the recently completed merger between AOL and Time Warner is putting pressure on other media companies to form similar alliances. But an analyst quoted in The Herald says that becoming a part of Viacom would hurt Yahoo's ability to form other partnerships with content aggregators. No other newspapers appeared to run the story.
Staff at media company CNN woke yesterday morning to the day some had probably been dreading. Like other media organisations, CNN, which is owned by Time Warner, announced yesterday it plans to cut 400 jobs in a huge restructuring. According to The Herald, a third of the job cuts will come from CNN Internet, which officials say had grown too big too fast anyway. In The Australian Financial Review, the layoffs were noted as well as the appointment of three new executives
In Biz.Com, The Herald reports that Real Media is close to finalising the sale of its business and technology assets to one of three rival online advertising companies. The Herald could not reveal a price for the deal, but said Real Media creditors are owed around $600,000.
A Sydney-based company, known here as Trade Wind Communications but operating in the US as Flexemessaging.com, has returned to profitability after six years in the red, The Herald reports. Trade Wind, which provides messaging services to corporations, is hoping to list on both the Nasdaq and the Australian Stock Exchange once it obtains effective report states with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company currently trades on Canada's Vancouver Stock Exchange.
The AFR reports that Telstra and Pacific Century CyberWorks have come under more pressure following a report from ABN Amro in HongKong, which has downgraded PCCW stock from an "add" recommendation to a "reduce". ABN Amro also criticised the PCCW/Telstra alliance. Meanwhile, The Australian reports that the loan of $US1.5 billion for the alliance is expected to be finalised today. With the falling share price, investors are hoping the loan will be approved before PCCW stock falls any further, but The Australian says there are concerns whether the deal can be wrapped up today.
Telstra has settled itself comfortably into a number of seats on the board of Keycorp, The Fin reports. Gerry Sutton, Telstra's executive director of emerging business, and Barry Grisdale, from Telstra's retail division, were appointed non-executive directors yesterday.
The darling of the Australian online travel industry was the bearer of bad news yesterday according to The Fin. Travel.com.au announced it has failed to achieve predicted revenues for the half-year ended December 31. The company is blaming post-Olympic slowdown in travel as well as the foundering Aussie dollar for the poor results. Travel.com.au used yesterday's announcement to hint at a new partnership with Amadeus, but didn't reveal details.
The AFR also noted several other interesting snippets of news yesterday, including Pineapplehead's deal with multimedia distributor Idea Media and Sanford Securities' plans to develop a technology platform for trading global currencies using a $1.3 million grant from the Federal government.
thestandard.com.au |
