James Packer will discover the game has changed since he left TV. But his bigger concern is to get back into the mogul business, write Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane.
James Packer
Let’s remember Packer isn’t very good at TV
James Packer is not and has never been a positive influence in TV. He has been sceptical about the future of FTA TV and print, enthusiastic about new media. He never wanted to stay in the old media, rejecting it for gambling.
What’s behind Packer’s latest bet
James Packer has now spent just over $400 million buying Crown shares in the past 12 months. Is it simply that he just sees value or is he preparing the ground for something more strategic?
Rich pickings: happy joint b’day to Packer and Murdoch jnr
What do you get the wealthy entrepreneur who has everything?
Our wealthy magnificent seven are more take than give
Not only do Australia’s rich give away a relatively small proportion of their wealth — but when they do, the donations are often made in unusual circumstances by businessmen with chequered histories.
Who profits from our foreign aid? From cattle company to global aid
When James’ father Kerry Packer purchased both companies in 1993, GRM was an agricultural company managing rural investments and thousands of cattle in Queensland. Here’s how it grew from a cattle company to a Foreign Aid giant.
How debt-laden Coates Hire takeover hurt Kerry Stokes
Just because Kerry Stokes wants to pay down some private debt without triggering a big tax bill through a capital return of Seven’s cash doesn’t mean that institutional investors should be dragged along to create a hotch-potch conglomerate.
Furphies, Law: stop defending the TV hand-out and a compliant minister
PBL Media CEO Ian Law failed to mention the D word in his defence of the $250 million handout to the indigent Australian free-to-air TV industry in The Australian’s Media section this morning. That’s D for debt.
Rebates to TV networks just an ugly bribe
The three commercial TV networks, Seven, Nine and Ten, went weak at the knees in congratulating the Government for its decision on rebate for licence fees. Can anyone say “election year”?
Wankley Awards: SMH, Tele and Oz all in need of an heir cut
With all the attention little Jackson Lloyd Packer received, you’d think Indigo, Jamie and Erica’s daughter and eldest child, didn’t exist, writes Crikey intern Tristan Price.
Rebel with a pause as private equity puts hit-and-run on hold
News that private equity has pulled another attempt to take the money and run from a poorly performing retailer again causes us to ask, just where is the added value from private equity?
Crikey’s Business Awards of the Year: people
While Australian stock markets rebounded with vigor, and property prices continued to bubble away, Crikey celebrates those who made it all possible, and made 2009 truly a year to remember.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Pricey pud at The Sunday Age‘s Xmas party
The Sunday Age charges its staffers a pretty penny for the company Chrissie bash, Packer and Murdoch Jrs have something on the boil, and the inside word from Telstra.
Only a Senate inquiry can sort out One.Tel mess
Whilst ASIC has received the mother of all beltings in today’s papers for the failure to string up former One.Tel CEO Jodee Rich, more attention should be focused on the role played by Australia’s politicians and the Murdoch and Packer families.
Crikey Says: Packer and Murdoch can’t buy their way out of this one
In throwing out the ASIC case against the One.Tel founders, the NSW Supreme Court demolished the idea that two of Sydney’s richest kids — the Packer heir James and the Murdoch heir Lachlan — were unsuspecting victims of One.Tel management in the failed telco’s boardroom.
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: What’s happening in Kabul?
An update on what’s happening in West Kabul, plus the hilarities Hansard captures — no whooping in here, Senator!
Expansive James Packer goes the full half hour
The man who used to like two-minute chairman addresses went on for half-an-hour at yesterday’s Crown AGM, boasting of PBL’s recent performance and making some pre-emptive attacks against the anti-pokies lobby.
Crikey Says: Poor Packer has had a gutful this morning
It was fat puns aplenty at News Limited this morning, with lots of unflattering photos running of rival media mogul James Packer. What point were they trying to make exactly?
Paul Barry and the Packer punch up
What’s Four Corners doing promoting a new tome on James Packer by Paul Barry?
Going gangbusters: the secret to Packer’s Macau success
After struggling initially, Packer’s $3 billion Macau casino venture is finally making headway. The secret: providing credit that no-one else can — overseen by a man with an alleged triad gangster past.
How Telstra split opens up Foxtel ownership
The announcement that Telstra must separate its retail and wholesale division — including a sell-off of its 50% Foxtel stake — should make Consolidated Media a prime takeover target. Let the media mogul battle begin.
Stokes-Murdoch “showdown” a damp squib
It’s back to business as usual in the Australian media, with Stokes and Packer dividing up the juiciest bits of the industry, just as Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch did a decade or so ago.
James still stuck in Kerry’s shadow
For most of his life, Kerry Packer had a reputation for being a bit of a Midas when it came to investing. Shame his son James Packer didn’t inherit the same touch.
Will Packer use Stokes to get Rupert’s cash?
If James Packer really doesn’t care to be a media owner these days, then he’ll use stalking Kerry Stokes to lever a big price for his pay-TV assets out of Rupert, writes Stephen Mayne.
