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Australia: Fairfax/Nine merger cleared

November 19, 2018

Fairfax has received the green light from its shareholders to merge with TV network Nine Entertainment in a huge shake-up of Australia’s media industry.

Fairfax shareholders were said to have given “overwhelming” support for the multi-billion dollar merger. The deal was possible after Australia relaxed its media ownership laws last year.

The new business will be called Nine, losing the well-establsihed Fairfax name.  Fairfax chairman Nick Falloon said the change was expected to be implemented on December 7th, subject to court approval.

The deal wraps in Nine’s television network, one of the nation’s biggest, and Fairfax newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne’s The Age and The Australian Financial Review.  It also includes Fairfax’s many radio and digital assets, including news websites in other cities and property listings business Domain.

“Media consolidation provides significant potential by leveraging increased scale of audiences and marketing inventory to grow,” Falloon said in a statement.

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