It is a great time to be a media investment banker in Australia these days: the whole big media business landscape is changing literally week by week, with lots of money sloshing around. Some M&A and other deals which happened in the last few days:
-- Fairfax Merges With Rural Press: Australian print publisher John Fairfax Holdings has merged with local media firm Rural Press to create a $7.08 billion media company, making it more difficult for others to buy it. Fairfax titles include The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review and several specialist magazines from which the company generated revenues of $1.9 billion for the financial year ended June 30, 2006. With Rural Press, it will add to its portfolio 170 regional titles and more than 60 agricultural publications.  Revenues for the merged company for 2006 on a proforma basis are estimated at $2.5 billion. The merged company will have a geographically well-diversified revenue stream with about 30% derived from Sydney and Melbourne, 44% from other Australian publishing, 21% from New Zealand publishing and the balance of 4% from online businesses.
-- CanWest Puts Australia’s Ten Network Up for Sale: CanWest, Canada’s biggest media company, has put TV company Ten Network up for sale...it will try to find a buyer for its controlling 56.4 percent stake. The Sydney-based network is Australia’s third-largest and valued at more than A$3.5 billion ($2.76 billion), including debt. Potential bidders for Ten include News Corp., which is Australia’s biggest newspaper publisher, or the Macquarie Bank-managed Macquarie Media Group.
-- Network Ten draws up digital strategy: Meanwhile, Network Ten is to launch a new digital media strategy next year with a focus on video streaming, downloads and communities surrounding its core brands. Ten will kick off the strategy by relaunching its main website, Ten.com.au, with a focus on video streaming, downloads and communities. The site will be supported by more than 50 program sites and relevant online communities.
-- Yahoo!7 to offer latest TV shows online: Yahoo!7, the Yahoo JV in Australia, will show TV shows from Nine and Ten Network online, by acquiring non-exclusive internet rights to their new season formats and offering them on a pay-per-download basis through its joint venture with online content distributor ReelTime. Yahoo!7 CEO Ian Smith said his portal would not replicate Ten’s strategy to launch websites for all its TV shows. Yahoo!7, he said, was likely to develop specific online content for about 12 TV shows in 2007 - the same number as this year.