JAMES Warburton has not taken long to land on his feet following the abrupt end to his second tenure as Supercars chief executive.
Warburton was back in the Supercars hot seat little more than eight months before departing amid tensions with championship co-owner/chairman Barclay Nettlefold, who has subsequently taken on the role of interim CEO.
Besides being touted as a potential candidate for the vacated NRL CEO gig, Warburton’s name keeps popping up in relation to advising on a mammoth bid to acquire oOh!media which is preparing to transition from the public sector to private.
The latest mention came today in The Australian, reiterating Warburton’s appointment by Pacific Equity Partners to drive its bid.
Warburton has a deep media background, having run Network 10, Seven West Media and APN Outdoor at different times.
PEP launched its bid in late April, with attached figures reported to be $1.40 a share and $747 million all up.
The oOh!media board was not satisfied with the value of those figures nor similar rival offers, and yesterday provided communications that following a three-week period of limited due diligence it had received multiple revised bids, including from PEP, in the vicinity of $1.60 a share.
That tallies with The Australian’s report today which outlined that PEP “is understood to be prepared to move on price if required”.
Interestingly, oOh!media is a rival of former Nettlefold company QMS Media which in January was purchased by Nine Entertainment for $850 million.
Supercars meanwhile remains without a permanent successor to Warburton, with Nettlefold continuing to act in an interim capacity.
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