The departure of Cameron Wallace from MediaWorks sees the former airline executive head for the same airport exit as his many predecessors, with the media company he once headed still waiting on final clearance for takeoff to a forever owner.
His mission - as it has been for asuccession of those who previously occupied his office over the past decade - was clearly signalled through the use of a juicy carrot in the form a long-term incentive scheme that would see him bank more than $2 million were he able to engineer a sale of the company to a third party.
The size of this potential bonus, however, is an indication of its difficulty to achieve, evidenced by several abortive moves by Wallace that crashed to Earth faster than a Chinese weather balloon intruding over Montana.
In mid-2022, Sky Network Television was identified as a possible purchaser, to the extent the pay-TV operator engaged in formal due diligence and filed a notice signalling interest with the NZX. Market sentiment, however, assessed any merger as being less than the sum of its parts: Sky shares tanked 7.2 per cent in response to the news, and the rug was swiftly pulled.
And optimistic chatter early in Wallace’s tenure about a possible independent float onto the NZX was similarly punctured.
Wallace today revealed he will join Qantas as group chief executive of international and freight from July - a move that pits him against Air New Zealand, where he worked for more than two decades.
What’s next for a much-slimmed down MediaWorks, once a multi-platform media giant which gave both TVNZ and NZME runs for their money but is now a radio and outdoor advertising play, is a further extension of a two-decade wait to find a committed owner.
MediaWorks is still afflicted by a hangover dating from 2007 when it had the unfortunate timing to be taken over in a leverage buyout just prior to the global financial crisis.
Sharyn Casey from the Sharyn & Jayden afternoon show on The Edge is one of the station's most popular presenters. Photo / MediaWorks
That $561m deal with Ironbridge Capital was soon revealed to be both too high a price, and largely financed by loading debt onto the company to the extent that by 2013 losses and interest had seen the company owe more than $700m.
Ironbridge, as with all private equity firms, weren’t interested in long-term ownership and sought to run a quick turnaround and then on-sell for a profit. But this was heavy going, debt levels quickly became unsustainable, and in 2013 receivers were appointed.
The company was first taken over by its bankers, and then by more private equity opportunists happy to take on debt at a discount from regretful lenders.
By the time the dust settled, MediaWorks found itself in a particularly cruel version of Groundhog Day, under another private equity owner - this time Oaktree Capital - and again saddled with hundreds of millions of dollars of debt.
In recent years, MediaWorks has ejected ballast, undergone a makeover of sorts and trimmed down markedly.
In 2018 it merged with QMS, adding out-of-home advertising to its portfolio. In 2020 it sold its central Auckland headquarters, providing a much-needed cash boost, but now requiring its premises to be leased back.
And in 2021, after years of turmoil and loss-making at its television division - best typified by the chaotic reign of chief executive Mark Weldon that saw stars John Campbell and Hilary Barry walk and eventually settle at rivals TVNZ - channels three and four were sold to global broadcasting giant Discovery.
Wallace arrived late to this spruce-up job but clearly thought there was a chance to make a deal and resolve a problem that has vexed bankers and executives for nearly 20 years.
With the Sky takeover failing to get off the ground, and earlier this month MediaWorks announcing nearly a hundred layoffs, Wallace looks to have decided to instead press the eject button.
