A leading executive at Rupert Murdoch’s business empire blasted Rightmove yesterday for hampering a multi-billion pound takeover approach.
Australian property firm Rea Group, which is backed by Murdoch’s News Corp, admitted defeat in its month-long attempt to swallow up the FTSE 100 property website, after a fourth successive offer worth £6.2bn was rebuffed.
In an extraordinary intervention, News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson (pictured left with Murdoch) said Rightmove ‘did not make the right move’ and applauded Rea’s withdrawal saying it would have been ‘foolhardy to overpay’.
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson (left) said Rightmove ‘did not make the right move’
Rea has also seen a series of earlier offers – valuing Rightmove at £5.6bn, £5.9bn and £6.1bn – rejected.
With a takeover panel deadline looming, Rea’s bosses jetted into Britain to try to woo the UK firm with an improved proposal.
But last ditch talks over the weekend between Rightmove chairman Andrew Fisher and Hamish McLennan, his Rea counterpart, failed to make progress.
That gave the Australians until 5pm yesterday to ‘put up or shut up’ under takeover rules.
Rightmove rejected a request to extend the deadline. Rea then threw in the towel and confirmed it did not intend to make an offer.
Thomson, an Australian former editor of The Times, said: ‘We strongly support the decision by the Rea team to withdraw from the potential acquisition of Rightmove.
We applaud Rea’s financial discipline as it is foolhardy to overpay for an asset, even if it patently had positive potential. ‘
As for Rightmove, we wish them well in an increasingly competitive British market –unfortunately, the company’s board did not make the right move.’
The comments appear to underline the significance of the attempted takeover to News Corp, which owns 61pc of Australia-based Rea and is best known for owning The Times and The Sun newspapers.
New York-based News Corp also owns The Wall Street Journal in the US, a raft of Australian titles and publisher Harper Collins.
In addition, Murdoch separately controls US TV network Fox News.
Rea issued a statement on its aborted takeover proposal, accusing Rightmove of a ‘lack of meaningful engagement’.
Chief executive Owen Wilson said: ‘We strongly believed in the opportunity to create a globally diversified leader in the digital property sector that would benefit both Rea and Rightmove shareholders.
‘We were disappointed with the limited engagement from Rightmove that impeded our ability to make a firm offer within the timetable available.
‘They had nothing to lose by engaging with us.’
Shares in Rightmove slumped 7.7pc, or 51.2p, to 617.4p.
Rea’s latest cash and share proposal valued the company’s shares at 775p each. It said that represented a 45pc premium to Rightmove’s average share price over the previous year.
But it was below the peak value just above 800p seen in December 2021. Rightmove said the latest offer undervalued the company.
Analysts had said Rea would need to make an offer valuing the company at least £7bn to stand any chance of success.
Fisher said: ‘We respect Rea and the success they have achieved in their domestic market. However, we remain confident in the standalone future of Rightmove.’
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Rea Group ‘runs property websites and indices across Australia, Asia and North America, so getting a dominant foothold in the UK would have been very attractive’.
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