Bruce Gordon increased his interest in Nine Entertainment to more than 25 per cent, giving the billionaire businessman outsize influence just hours before a board meeting that resulted in the resignation of the company’s chairman Peter Costello.

Mr Gordon, the owner of regional broadcaster WIN Corporation, owns 14.9 per cent of Nine’s shares and is by far its biggest shareholder. Media ownership restrictions prevent the 95-year-old businessman from increasing his shareholding in Nine further.