Austar sits tight, predators circle

REGIONAL pay-TV operator Austar said yesterday it was yet to receive an offer that warranted the sale of the company to takeover predators, in the wake of last month's decision by its US majority owner, John Malone's Liberty Global, to walk away from discussions with Foxtel.

REGIONAL pay-TV operator Austar said yesterday it was yet to receive an offer that warranted the sale of the company to takeover predators, in the wake of last month's decision by its US majority owner, John Malone's Liberty Global, to walk away from discussions with Foxtel.

Austar's chairman, and Liberty's CEO, Michael Fries, told Austar's annual general meeting yesterday of takeover approaches from other parties.

"Nothing we've seen from those approaches exceeds the value we believe we can achieve by just executing the business plan as it currently sits."

The Australian revealed on May 10 that a senior Liberty executive, Andrea Salvato, had returned to the US after negotiations with Foxtel had broken down because of irreconcilable differences on price. But in a sign that Foxtel is taking a continuing interest in Austar's future, Foxtel chief financial officer Peter Tonagh was present at the meeting, his name clearly visible on the visitor registration list at the meeting's entrance.

Austar directors yesterday would not specifically name Foxtel as an interested party in Austar's future.

However, Mr Fries described the topic of the possible takeover of Austar by Foxtel as "the elephant in the room", and reiterated the approaches the company had received were preliminary and incomplete.

"If there were more to say, I can guarantee you this is the opportunity we would use to say it," he said. "So the company is not being coy or clever or cute - it's simply good policy or practice to wait until there is something to say."

The company also revealed at the meeting that there was no formal arrangement in place to stop either Foxtel moving into regional markets, or Austar moving into metropolitan areas.

Deanne Weir, Austar's group director of corporate development and legal affairs, conceded that for Foxtel and Austar to "look at each other's markets is always a possibility".

However, the two parties had "long-term programming agreements" in place, she said.

Earlier, Austar CEO John Porter welcomed the move announced on Wednesday by Seven Media to introduce the TiVo personal digital recorder (PDR) to Australia by next year.

Mr Porter is planning to launch Austar's own PDR product, MyStar, by August this year, and the TiVo is seen in some quarters as a threat to pay-TV operators.

But Mr Porter told the meeting: "In regard to the TiVo announcement, we think it's a terrific announcement for the television industry and will only accelerate the category (and) the growth of the PDR across our universe."