Commentaries
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Coming soon on ITV…
Who needs a chief executive officer? Well, Lazard perhaps, when it’s Bruce Wasserstein (which is why his serious illness is also serious for the shareholders) but not ITV, it seems. On Monday, when its leadership saga had a better plotline than Corrie, the shares went up.
Perhaps it was the thought of all the money saved from that empty c-suite, or perhaps it was renewed hope for the end of Michael Grade’s disastrous tenure as executive chairman, or perhaps it was the upGrade (sorry) from Goldman Sachs, but the shares joined in the general stock market fun and rose to their best for three weeks.
The golden boys “had concerns going into the CEO announcement and Contract Rights Renewal decision. Neither announcement fulfilled our upside scenario” – whatever that means – “but they were consistent with our base-case assumptions.” They now reckon the shares are worth 58 pence, against Monday morning’s 46 pence, because advertising revenues at Britain’s leading free-to-air commercial channel are starting to rise after last year’s plunge.
This is surely the point. ITV has a Golden Shot at puncturing the myth that without a powerful ceo, a business just can’t function. Michael Bishop was offered the job of (non-executive) chairman, and the result of his due diligence was enough for him to run away. Chief operating officer John Cresswell likes acting above his pay grade so much that he’s promised to resign as soon as a new chief executive can be found.
Put the Ball into ITV shareholders’ court
Tony Ball is one of the most talented executives in British television. He must be, because ITV, the country’s biggest commercial broadcaster, is prepared to offer him a pay package which could make him 20 million pounds over five years.
Unfortunately, Ball thinks that 30 million would be nearer his true value. Oh, and by the way, he doesn’t think much of the turkeys on the ITV board either. He has a point. Executive chairman Michael Grade has done almost everything in television and entertainment except to make it pay. George Russell brings all his experience at Northern Rock and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust to bear as deputy chairman. The senior independent director is James Crosby, who ran HBOS onto the rocks of the banking crisis.
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The Wall
