Bruce Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch "wasted no time in launching their latest bid to take over the struggling Ten Network," according to David Chau of the ABC. This follows the Australian Senate's "passing of the media law reform bill on Thursday" by a vote of 31-27. The law would abolish the "two out of three" and "reach" rule which, together, prevent a company from owning a newspaper, TV and radio station in the same city, and from broadcasting to more than 75% of the population. The terms of the revised Gordon-Murdoch offer are "compelling" for "a number of reasons," such as the fact it is now a "significantly lower transaction risk," according to the bid document. Under their new offer, Gordon and Murdoch "have increased their pool of cash for Ten's unsecured creditors" by 57% -- from A$35M ($28M) to A$55M ($44M). This is higher than U.S. broadcaster CBS's offer of A$32M ($25.6M), according to a supplementary report released by Ten administrator KordaMentha (ABC, 9/15). In Sydney, Lucy Battersby reported under the new offer from Murdoch and Gordon's investment companies, Illyria and Birketu, employees and continuing trade creditors would still receive 100 cents on the dollar and all other creditors would get 5.75 cents on the dollar. However, "it is not clear if the revised offer will be put to creditors at the second meeting," which is due to be held in Sydney on Tuesday. KordaMentha "is understood to be seeking advice on whether a new bid is able to be accepted." The deadline for offers was Aug. 24 (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 9/15).
