Australia's Fairfax bids to take over rival media group

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2006

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia's second-largest media company Fairfax on Wednesday proposed a merger with the rival Rural Press group to create a nine billion dollar (seven billion US) regional press behemoth. The offer by John Fairfax Holdings Ltd, worth up to 2.8 billion dollars, came as press moguls jockey for position ahead of a relaxation in media ownership rules in Australia early next year.

The board of Rural Press, which publishes the Canberra Times, has recommended the offer, which would forge Australasia's largest integrated metropolitan, regional and rural print and digital media group. Fairfax chairman Ronald Walker said the publishing businesses of both firms had expanded massively and that they had immense opportunities online. "With an enterprise value of over nine...