Australian Court Approves Nine-Fairfax Merger

The Federal Court of Australia has approved the merger of Nine Entertainment and Fairfax Media.

The court decided to approve the proposed deal despite a last-minute attempt to block it by minor Fairfax shareholder and former executive Anthony Catalano. He had argued that the Fairfax board did not provide shareholders an opportunity to consider his competing offer at the recent annual general meeting.

Under the proposed merger, Nine shareholders will own 51.1 percent of the combined entity, with Fairfax shareholders owning the remaining 48.9 percent.

The merger has already been cleared by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.

The combined company will be known as Nine.