As the Commerce Commission announced this morning that it would not approve the merger between NZME and Fairfax New Zealand, the heads of both organisations published official statements expressing their disappointment at the decision. We look at how it all went down.
Amidst the sea of change sweeping over the media industry, the Commerce Commission has the temerity to stand like King Canute – doing its best to thwart the waves of progress by saying ‘no’ to mergers like this one, writes JustOne’s Ben Goodale.
With all this news of mergers, there’s a new hashtag in town, ‘#nzmergerbot’, and the possibilities are endless. Here are a few of our favourites.
With Vodafone and Sky in talks over a merger, which would result in a multi-faceted content giant, Receptive.tv’s Sam Aldred suggests a quiet panic and a regroup for the rest of New Zealand media.
In what appears to have become a bit of an industry trend as of late, as agencies have increasingly been sucked into one another, Bcg2 has announced it has acquired Shirtcliffe and Co, with the move going live on 1 March.
There’s been a whole heap of industry chatter about the proposed merger of Publicis and Omnicom, a merger that would create the biggest holding company in all the world (but would still pale in comparison to Google). And, in true modern style, there’s already a parody Twitter account (‘This is a parody. But then again, isn’t the ad industry’) that’s skewering the combined entity.
Local indy agency Blackwood Communications Group announced today it is set to merge with global powerhouse Grey Group and their local incarnation G2.
Blackwood’s managing director Michael Jarvis says discussions are still in progress and a would be concluded by late December.
He would not comment on what the …