SKT Sky Network Television Limited.

[mistaTea]

WHen we vote on this debarcle can we also call a vote of no confidence in our non resident chairman?

If they end up blowing the entire cash balance ($150M+) on this deal it would be devastating. Even if they could buy all the assets for $50M and assume the $100M debt, it would be a very expensive deal.

The market has voted very swiftly too - Sophie should kill this deal asap. Though we haven't seen the terms yet...and knowing the terms would give us a better idea of what they are looking to do...it is hard to imaging Sky shareholders coming out the other side of this better off than the sellers.

I maintain that Sky TV's future is as a telco - not owining a radio station and some billboards.

Philip 'the Pooman' Bowman absolutely needs to resign, and so does old school Keith and Joan who no doubt think this transaction is a brilliant idea.

But we also have to question Sophie's capital allocation skills. She was good at cutting costs (with the help of the Foxtel guy)...but let's not forget that Sophie was the one who brought the RugbyPass deal to Martin and sold him on it...

Now this...hmmn.

Kill the deal, and do what the market showed support for - sell the business.

[jimdog31]

In more positive news, the new SP trajectory puts them back as an attractive takeover target. FFS Sky, give it up, noone believes in your ability

[Sideshow Bob]

Add to the cost the $33m wiped off the market cap in the last half hour.

Shows what the market thinks of it.....

[jimdog31]

This is also a major distraction from the non-delivery of the STB. Sure, there has been chip shortages, but if they cant even deliver on their core business strategy how the flip will the deliver on unfamiliar business units?

[snigmac]

Low volumes traded currently. I'm still of the opinion thar if Sky can purchase the company for peanuts, this could be a worthwhile venture. Will be interesting to see if Sky moves forward with his and the terms if Sky moves forward with this.

[jimdog31]

Low volumes traded currently. I'm still of the opinion thar if Sky can purchase the company for peanuts, this could be a worthwhile venture. Will be interesting to see if Sky moves forward with his and the terms if Sky moves forward with this.

Yes, sell side is stacked though. Buy side, not so much

[mistaTea]

Low volumes traded currently. I'm still of the opinion thar if Sky can purchase the company for peanuts, this could be a worthwhile venture. Will be interesting to see if Sky moves forward with his and the terms if Sky moves forward with this.

Well, yes very true.

But let's imagine that they gave us the assets for free...and all we had to do was take on the debt. So we got the business for $100M...

Would anyone think that is a great deal? Maybe that deal would be 'ok'...but not exceptional.

And of course, we won't get the assets for free...we will have to pay something plus take the debt no doubt. So even if we got the assets for $50M + $100M debt...if they clear the entire debt, there goes the dividend that a lot of people seem to be hanging out for.

In that scenario to keep the dividend, they would only be able to retire half of the debt. Not ridiculous for a $1B revenue business to have some debt, but our Board are very conservative.

So yes, ultimately we do have to wait and see what the terms are if this ends up being a firm deal...but gosh it is hard to see how this turns out to be a stellar decision for SKT shareholders.

They just keep kicking us in the guts. But don't worry, they are very nice this time...they won't ask us to contribute more money or be diluted to oblivion again! Really looking out for our best interests this lot!

[LoungeLizzard]

Why oh why did I think that SKY had changed? Just as they seem to have steadied the ship they go sailing off into unchartered waters, with a high chance of ending back onto the rocks.

If this goes through it will eat considerably into the warchest of money that could have been used to expand broadband/streaming/mobile ie the future. Instead Pooman and co think that radio and billboards are the future? Does the fact that that business is failing not tell them they should steer clear? What a disaster.

My concern is that they may have sounded out Institutional Investors before they approached NZME - they'd be foolish not to - in which case they might have the numbers. Either way this is going to suck time, energy and money out of the company at a time when they needed to protect their core business and not be trying to find synergies with last century companies. They'll be buying a network of town-criers next

[jimdog31]

Why oh why did I think that SKY had changed? Just as they seem to have steadied the ship they go sailing off into unchartered waters, with a high chance of ending back onto the rocks.

If this goes through it will eat considerably into the warchest of money that could have been used to expand broadband/streaming/mobile ie the future. Instead Pooman and co think that radio and billboards are the future? Does the fact that that business is failing not tell them they should steer clear? What a disaster.

My concern is that they may have sounded out Institutional Investors before they approached NZME - they'd be foolish not to - in which case they might have the numbers. Either way this is going to suck time, energy and money out of the company at a time when they needed to protect their core business and not be trying to find synergies with last century companies. They'll be buying a network of town-criers next

Nah, my money is on the Warriors.

[mistaTea]

Why oh why did I think that SKY had changed? Just as they seem to have steadied the ship they go sailing off into unchartered waters, with a high chance of ending back onto the rocks.

If this goes through it will eat considerably into the warchest of money that could have been used to expand broadband/streaming/mobile ie the future. Instead Pooman and co think that radio and billboards are the future? Does the fact that that business is failing not tell them they should steer clear? What a disaster.

My concern is that they may have sounded out Institutional Investors before they approached NZME - they'd be foolish not to - in which case they might have the numbers. Either way this is going to suck time, energy and money out of the company at a time when they needed to protect their core business and not be trying to find synergies with last century companies. They'll be buying a network of town-criers next

Buy The Rock and a few billboards...or merge with 2D...I know which option I would pick if I genuinely cared about Sky TV as a going concern and not my own interests (keeping my seat on the Board)!

Buying Mediaworks may well bolster revenue somewhat, but it doesn't make our core customers stickier. And it doesn't strengthen our negotiating hand with sports bodies and other content partners...