Fairfax’s plan to merge with NZME blocked by New Zealand appeal court
New Zealand courts have again blocked plans for a merger of Fairfax’s NZ unit and its media rival NZME.
Plans to merge Fairfax Media’s New Zealand unit with NZME, the owner of New Zealand’s top-selling newspaper, have again been blocked.
NZME said today that New Zealand’s Court Of Appeals had rejected its appeal against the High Court’s decision last December to block the merger.
NZME had decided in February to contest the High Court decision.
The deal, first announced in 2016, would have combined NZME’s flagship New Zealand Herald newspaper and nzherald.co.nz website, a portfolio of radio stations, including Newstalk ZB, and the GrabOne deals site with Fairfax’s (FXJ) titles including the Dominion Post, Sunday Star-Times, The Press, the stuff.co.nz website and magazines.
The merger was initially blocked by New Zealand’s competition regulator on concerns it would have led to unprecedented local media influence, a decision upheld by the country’s High Court.
The Court Of Appeals is the second highest appeals court In the country, behind the Supreme Court.
NZME said it would consider the judgment and “review its options.”
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs said he was disappointed by the decision.
Reuters
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