One of the quirks of the blockbuster $200 million contract offered to Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson in 2023 was the issuance to the pair of about 6 million shares in their employer ARN Media in place of bonuses.
The idea, at least according to ARN, was to try to get the two presenters thinking more about what’s good for the company, rather than just the ratings. But right now it looks like the “revenue share” idea hasn’t been quite the incentive ARN Media chairman Hamish “The Hammer” McLennan might’ve hoped.
“ARN Media’s unique compensation package will incentivise [Kyle and Jackie O] to focus not just on ratings but also to drive commercial success,” McLennan said in a statement when the arrangement was announced in late 2023.
“Unique” is one word for it. The company’s share price is circling the drain at just 33 cents apiece. The stock is down 54 per cent from where it was when the contract took effect in January last year, leaving ARN as a tin-pot company with a market capitalisation of a little over $100 million, and shaving millions in value off Kyle and Jackie O’s combined stake in the process.
Now that ARN has terminated the duo’s contracts, CBD hears the company will try and claw back those shares.
Sandilands’ and Henderson’s recently terminated contracts took effect in January last year. At the time, their combined shares were worth about $4.38 million, when the company was trading at 73 cents. By market close on Friday the shares had taken a $2.4 million haircut, and are currently worth just $1.98 million.
In the grand scheme of things Kyle and Jackie O, it’s not an enormous amount of money. But the particulars of the duo’s deal have been the subject of a groundswell of media industry chatter, after Sandilands indicated his lawyers are preparing to launch legal action.
ARN and a representative for Henderson declined to comment. Sandilands’ camp didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Of course, the duo’s financial arrangement is just one thread captivating media observers as we settle in for what could well be a protracted fight over whether ARN was within its rights to terminate Sandilands’ and Henderson’s $200 million deal.
And who knows, by the time the looming legal battle is settled, maybe the duo’s shares may finally be worth something.
Cardboard king Anthony Pratt lures powerbrokers to annual knees-up
Every year, the Australian billionaire Trump whisperer Anthony Pratt plays host to some of the nation’s most influential names in business and politics.
And so it was again on Saturday night, when a horde of influentials and hangers-on descended on Raheen in Melbourne’s Kew for a night of festivities hosted by none other than Australia’s MAGA man of the moment, Today show co-host Karl Stefanovic, for Pratt’s packaging company Visy.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his wife Jodie Haydon were among those who turned out for the event – where homegrown pop star Kylie Minogue was the headline act – along with Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and her deputy, Ben Carroll.
Also spotted at the function were Herald & Weekly Times and Tourism Australia chair Penny Fowler, along with Endeavour Group chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka and Lion chair Sir Rod Eddington.
The Pratt family contingent, meanwhile, was represented by Heloise Pratt and her partner Jon Stevens, along with Fiona and Raphael Geminder, Matthew and Georgia Danos, Bella and Jose Falk, and Sammy Geminder.
Clive Palmer fails to convince the High Court (again)
Serial litigant and terminal loser Clive Palmer has failed once again. Earlier this month the billionaire’s bid to appeal a decision by the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia, in his effort to sue the corporate regulator, was knocked back by the High Court.
“The proposed appeal raises no question of legal principle and has insufficient prospects of success to warrant a grant of special leave to appeal,” the High Court wrote in its disposition. “Special leave to appeal is refused with costs.”
We find ourselves here because Palmer launched legal action against the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) that was ultimately dismissed by Federal Court Justices Jonathan Beach, Katrina Banks-Smith and James Owens in October last year.
In that matter, the businessman and his company Palmer Leisure Coolum Pty Ltd launched action against ASIC and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to challenge the regulator’s use of its statutory power in the pursuit of Palmer. ASIC declined to comment. Palmer’s representative did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
The action was only the latest in a series of bust-ups between Palmer and the corporate regulator. Of course, we don’t expect it to be the last.
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