Stokes bunfight, Talking Heads and IMF audio
February 2, 2010
Dear Mayne Reporters,
Apologies for a brief update but the plane is boarding shortly and the phone has been going bananas.
The Seven Network AGM in Sydney was the most combative I've ever come across with Kerry Stokes' burly security guard actually heading to the microphone after the billionaire demanded I sit down and stop criticising the board at the end of proceedings. This has never happened before in more than 300 AGMs.
The AGM got off to a bad start when Seven confiscated my recording device and then refused to undertake to provide a transcript or audio account of the meeting. Can you imagine John Howard taking such a stance over the big debate with Kevin Rudd last year.
Sadly, Seven is a television company which couldn't even meet the standard practice of webcasting proceedings and the performance of Stokes this afternoon just demonstrated again that he has little idea about the niceties of running a public company.
Shareholders got a miserable 8 minute address from Stokes and then when he threw it open to questions without CEO David Leckie saying a word, he then insisted they could only be on the accounts.
From there it just got worse and worse with warnings about defamation, regular interruptions. It will be interesting to see how the press report this extraordinary performance and we'll have more tomorrow.
Tune in to Talking Heads tonight
ABC TV's Talking Heads program goes up against Today Tonight and A Current Affair at 6.30pm every Monday night. This evening's episode is described as follows on the Talking Heads website: "As founder of the online news site Crikey, Stephen Mayne stepped on the toes of the rich and powerful. Now he's a web publisher and a committed share market activist – still intent on making his mark. In an emotional interview with Peter Thompson he tells of how he developed his firm sense of right and wrong."
Have a listen to this interview with Mike Smith on 4BC which previews some of the territory covered on Talking Heads tonight, plus the Seven AGM.
IMF AGM audio
Here are the relevent audio highlights from the AGM of litigation funder IMF last Friday which included questions as to why they hadn't taken action over Toll Holdings, Babcock and Macquarie.
1. Chairman has done nothing on the whole third party managed model
2. Toll Holdings $55m no-brainer on executive pay
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.
Apologies for a brief update but the plane is boarding shortly and the phone has been going bananas.
The Seven Network AGM in Sydney was the most combative I've ever come across with Kerry Stokes' burly security guard actually heading to the microphone after the billionaire demanded I sit down and stop criticising the board at the end of proceedings. This has never happened before in more than 300 AGMs.
The AGM got off to a bad start when Seven confiscated my recording device and then refused to undertake to provide a transcript or audio account of the meeting. Can you imagine John Howard taking such a stance over the big debate with Kevin Rudd last year.
Sadly, Seven is a television company which couldn't even meet the standard practice of webcasting proceedings and the performance of Stokes this afternoon just demonstrated again that he has little idea about the niceties of running a public company.
Shareholders got a miserable 8 minute address from Stokes and then when he threw it open to questions without CEO David Leckie saying a word, he then insisted they could only be on the accounts.
From there it just got worse and worse with warnings about defamation, regular interruptions. It will be interesting to see how the press report this extraordinary performance and we'll have more tomorrow.
Tune in to Talking Heads tonight
ABC TV's Talking Heads program goes up against Today Tonight and A Current Affair at 6.30pm every Monday night. This evening's episode is described as follows on the Talking Heads website: "As founder of the online news site Crikey, Stephen Mayne stepped on the toes of the rich and powerful. Now he's a web publisher and a committed share market activist – still intent on making his mark. In an emotional interview with Peter Thompson he tells of how he developed his firm sense of right and wrong."
Have a listen to this interview with Mike Smith on 4BC which previews some of the territory covered on Talking Heads tonight, plus the Seven AGM.
IMF AGM audio
Here are the relevent audio highlights from the AGM of litigation funder IMF last Friday which included questions as to why they hadn't taken action over Toll Holdings, Babcock and Macquarie.
1. Chairman has done nothing on the whole third party managed model
2. Toll Holdings $55m no-brainer on executive pay
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.