Suppression lifted on Nine's statements about Stuff

Thursday, 28 January 2021

The High Court agreed to temporarily suppress comments made by Nine at the time it was dealing with the Commerce Commission, that characterised Stuff as a failing business that it intended to close if it didn’t find a buyer.

Stuff’s former owner, Australian business Nine, signalled that it intended to close Stuff if it didn’t find a buyer for the business by the end of May last year, according to a High Court judgment issued last year.

At the time, Nine was also characterising Stuff to the Commerce Commission as a “failing firm”, in the knowledge that doing so might make it easier for the regulator to approve a sale of Stuff to rival media firm NZME, which was hoping to buy the business.

Nine instead sold Stuff to Stuff’s chief executive Sinead Boucher for one dollar before the end of May, making the matter academic.

But Justice Sarah Katz decided to suppress information about Nine’s stated plans for a further six months last July, out of a concern that it might adversely impact Stuff if it was made public earlier.

* Stuff boss Sinead Boucher: 'I asked myself what I wanted for the business'

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* NZME court action declined to enable third party bid to buy Stuff

NZME wanted information about Stuff made public after it failed in its attempt to buy the business.

The High Court became involved in the machinations over the future of Stuff after NZME applied unsuccessfully in May for an interim injunction seeking to force Nine back to the negotiating table.

NZME tried to persuade the court to make Nine’s earlier stated intentions public last year, but Stuff requested a delay which the court agreed to.

Boucher said then that the suppressed information wrongly suggested that Stuff was not a viable business.

Katz noted in her July ruling that Stuff disputed Nine’s description of it as a failing business and was seeking suppression only for a limited period to “give it some ‘clear air’ to put its recent difficulties behind it and move forward with its new strategy”.

Her assumption was that by now, what had been said about Stuff last year would be “of limited relevance or interest to Stuff’s key stakeholders”.

Boucher said on Thursday that the court documents gave “some sense of the challenging position Stuff was in at the beginning of last year, caught in a protracted and uncertain sale process with an Australian parent who had been very clear they did not want to be long term owners”.

“Stuff has always been a profitable and self-funded company, and management did not support the description of Stuff as a ‘failing firm’ as part of the efforts by Nine and NZME to get a sale approved by the Commerce Commission,” she said.

“Eight months on from the change in ownership we are busy implementing our plans for 2021, investing in new journalism and products to meet the needs of New Zealanders. We are very grateful for the enormous support that we have had from readers and advertisers during this time.”

A Nine spokesman would not comment on the suppressed information, or confirm it had said it had intended to close the business by the end of May last year without a buyer.

“The return of Stuff to local ownership, under Sinead Boucher, was the right outcome and one that has enabled the business to chart its own course,” he said.

“Nine has been committed to working with the management team on what has been a successful transition of ownership.”