Will view.com.au benefit from Antony Catalano’s stake in Tomorrow Agency? Share buybacks hit yet another new peak. Plus: Robbie Katter displays his Queensland pride by pushing for it to be cut in half.
From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours…
View splits with Enzo? Months after former CEO Antony Catalano’s shock departure from Fairfax’s spun-off real estate listings business Domain, Ms Tips hears a competitor could be stepping up into the market. Apparently there have been some changes at view.com.au, a much smaller real estate listings site set up by a coalition of Australia’s real estate institutes.
Current CEO Enzo Raimondo is apparently out, and yet to be replaced. And the company has a new director in Charbel Nader — previously the chair of Catalano’s Metro Media Publishing, which Fairfax bought into in 2011 and completed a takeover in 2015.
In some interesting timing, Catalano last week announced he’d bought a stake in Tomorrow Agency, a real estate media buying agency, and will be executive director from July 1. It’s one of the biggest agencies in the real estate category, and directs tens of millions of dollars to Domain, News Corp competitor REA Group and other media channels, according to the press release. As part of Catalano’s new role, he’ll be advising real estate clients on where to spend their advertising dollars. So you’d have to wonder how much of that budget might now be directed to View.
Raimondo and View didn’t respond to Crikey‘s request for comment, but Catalano assured us he wouldn’t be working for View — his non-compete clause with Fairfax prevents him from taking staff or clients from Domain for 12 months from when he left in January and, he said, he was out of the country when any deals were being done at View late last month.
Buybacks hit yet another peak. Share buybacks announced by American companies have hit an all-time high of US$173.6 billion. US financial data group TrimTabs said the record number of buyback announcements was due “in large part” to expected corporate tax savings. The biggest buybacks were concentrated in the highly profitable tech sector.
Buybacks revealed in May included Apple’s $100 billion buyback plan which replaces a $210 billion buyback due to end this month; Micron Technology with a $10 billion announcement; Qualcomm’s $8 billion proposal’ Adobe Systems’ $8 billion deal; and T-Mobile’s announced $7.5 billion in buybacks. May’s record figure compares to $153.7 billion in February from $59.9 billion in January.
Little pride in the current leadership? Is Agriculture Minister — and future entry in Crikey‘s political dynasty series — David Littleproud, aiming for the top? A tipster has told us the Littleproud machine, while unprepared for the events of recent months surrounding Barnaby Joyce, is now readying for the possibility of another spill.
This reinforces the feeling that Michael McCormack is seen by many as a stop gap. But if the wheels of mutiny are in motion, Littleproud is keeping them well hidden. Is he keeping the live export trade alive just so he can stick McCormack on a boat to the Middle East, and get him out of the picture for good? Seems far-fetched, as does the idea of an imminent spill generally. Of course, we’d be happy to be proved wrong. Email us at boss@crikey.com.au if you know more.
Katter renews calls for separation. What better way to mark a day celebrating your home state than to use day to push your secessionist movement? MP for Traeger and Katter Party princeling Robbie Katter this morning renewed his calls for Northern Queensland (from Rockhampton upwards) to became a separate state, tweeting “today is the day we separated from NSW 159 years ago. Many people said it couldn’t be done… It’s time we did it again.”
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There you are. If Queensland hadn’t broken away Joh Bjelke-Petersen would have been Premier of NSW.
Littleproud has certainly been heavily media tutored – his performances over the live trade are choca with repeated, meaningless phrases and obfuscation to run out the interview time.
With HamishMac on Monday’s RN Breakfast, when he accused the WA Minister of lying, he used “the reality is” 8 times and persists in referring to his dealing with the issue as “being on this journey” which is kinda dumb as most people would think “Good idea, as long as you share it with the sheep” .