The elephants are jostling for positions in the media jungle. With the
growing likelihood of the federal government watering down the
country’s media laws later this year, Crikey hears the action is
hotting up in the offices of media companies, stockbrokers and
investment bankers.

Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon, who controls the WIN regional
television outfit, has been piling up shares in the Ten Network in
recent weeks – so far he’s spent $114 million to accumulate 7.8% of
Ten.

Why would Gordon do that now? Maybe because a little (or big) bird told
him Ten would be taken over when the cross-media rules change. Taken
over by who? A chirpy friend called Rupert, perhaps?

Who else is jostling in the jungle? Well, suggestions of the Packers
exiting Nine continue to echo through the trees, followed by whispers
that a certain newspaper mob located at Sydney’s Darling Park might
just be the bunnies to become his next Alan Bond. Crikey hears the
bunnies are very actively pursuing the “strategic concept” of “vertical
integration” into network television – to “extract key synergies” of
course.

Watch this space.