UPDATED: It got a little hairy, and it cost a little more, but it looks like CBS has been able to secure Australia’s Ten Network following a last-minute challenge mounted by Fox Co-Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch and entrepreneur Bruce Gordon. Creditors of Australia’s embattled Ten Network Holdings on Tuesday agreed to a $167M buyout from CBS Corp.’
While some regulatory approvals are required, creditors of Oz’s Not 3-rated network voted overwhelmingly in favor of the rescue bid from CBS at a second creditors meeting on Tuesday.
CBS had already been poised to win its bid, after Australia’s Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the sale raised by Murdoch and Gordon.
The nation’s No. 3 broadcaster filed for voluntary administration protection, similar to bankruptcy, three months ago after Murdoch and Gordon said they would no longer provide financial support for the struggling company.
Bids were supposed to have been due on August 25. Shortly afterward, Ten Network’s biggest creditor, CBS, said that it had “agreed to acquire” the broadcaster.
Murdoch and Gordon asked the court to intervene, saying administrators should have considered selling the business to Gordon’s private firm Birketu and Murdoch’s Illyria Nominees Television. Both were Ten’s major shareholders before it went into receivership.
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