The Telstra deal is done and the price of freedom doesn’t appear to be as high as Telstra might have feared, says Stephen Bartholomeusz in The Age. Communications minister Helen Coonan seems to have achieved a “reasonable balance” between
regulatory safeguards and Telstra’s ability to operate commercially
after T3. However, The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Elizabeth Knight
says Sol Trujillo has “real issues.” By announcing in-principle
approval to the sale of the remainder of T3, the Government has told
the Telstra boss Trujillo to “get lost” with Coonan demonstrating that
she is a politician prepared to trade commercial gain for
enhanced competition and consumer protection.

The next big challenge for Trujillo will be to “fix” Telstra and make it attractive to global institutional investors, says the Fin Review.
The challenge for those soon to be commissioned by the government to
sell its stake will be to achieve a price on par with that used by
Treasurer Peter Costello in his budget estimates – a price that is
almost 10% above the current price.

Meanwhile Westfield’s Frank Lowy has been having a big impact on the financial world, according to Terry McCrann in the Herald Sun.
By helping to kill the proposed Lend Lease-GPT merger last financial year, Lowy has forced
Lend Lease to go down a more entrepreneurial path with more risk – but
also potentially more return. Lowy forced GPT to do the same
with its “embrace” of the very entrepreneurial Babcock & Brown and
off-balance sheet vehicles to buy apartments in strange parts of
Europe. However, these ventures also have more risk and potentially
less-than-more return. The Daily Telegraph
reports that Lend Lease will focus on shopping centre and communities
developments in the UK this year, putting the failed $7.3 billion bid for General
Property behind it.

The Age
goes big on the market speculation that transport giant Toll Holdings
might be preparing for a $4 billion takeover of its number one rival
– Patrick Corp. Managing director Paul Little repeatedly avoided
commenting on the topic yesterday, but after making more than 40
acquisitions since 1989, Toll has made little secret of its growth
ambitions. But they may want to find a buyer for Patrick’s 62%
stake in Virgin Blue first.

On Wall Street, US stocks closed higher Wednesday, bolstered by strong
financial results from Hewlett-Packard Co., Nordstrom Inc. and Applied
Materials Inc. The Dow closed up 37.26 points to 10,550 – MarketWatch has a full report here.