News Brands
Pregnant with possibilities: Why Nine is primed for change this year
If any company is primed for significant change in 2025, it’s Nine Entertainment, writes Elizabeth Knight in The Sydney Morning Herald. The media giant has embarked on a strategic review, while one of Australia’s most prominent investor activists, John Wylie, has quietly acquired a stake. Most notably, Nine’s share price remains stuck in a slump.
The company is now brimming with potential, sparking widespread speculation about what might emerge from these developments at Nine.
Wylie’s Tanarra Capital has a well-established track record of investing in undervalued companies and advocating for shifts in strategy or leadership, making this move one to watch closely.
Amanda Laing firms for mega Nine broadcast job amid restructure
Nine Entertainment is set to appoint former Foxtel executive Amanda Laing to a newly created role overseeing broadcast operations, reports The Australian Financial Review’s Kylar Loussikian. The proposed management shake-up at the $2 billion media company could be finalised within weeks.
The role is expected to report directly to Nine’s acting CEO, Matt Stanton, and will encompass oversight of the company’s free-to-air television and radio divisions, as well as its Stan streaming platform.
If confirmed, this move would mark Ms Laing’s return to Nine, where she served as managing director until 2017. According to sources familiar with the matter, Ms Laing would only commence the position later this year, once her non-compete obligations with Foxtel have concluded. These sources declined to speak on the record as they were not authorised to discuss the appointment publicly.
Social
Michelle Rowland slams Meta over fact check decision and backs news outlets
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has emphasised that access to trusted information has “never been more important” following Meta’s decision to abandon independent fact-checking on its social media platforms in the US, write Rhiannon Down and Jared Lynch in The Australian.
Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement to scrap third-party fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram has prompted Ms. Rowland to call for “quality, fact-checked information” from public broadcasters as the antidote to online misinformation.
Meta’s pivot to X-style “community notes,” where users assess the accuracy of posts, comes just weeks before Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The president-elect, a close ally of X Corp owner Elon Musk, has previously accused Meta of suppressing free speech and censoring conservative viewpoints.
‘Damaging for our democracy’: Chalmers slams Meta decision
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it’s “very concerning” and that Meta has decided to remove it’s fact-checkers ahead of the federal election, reports The AFR’s Lucy Slade.
Meta chairman Mark Zuckerberg promised to scrap independent verification of content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads on Wednesday, to win over Donald Trump.
“I think misinformation and disinformation is very dangerous and we have seen it really kind of explode in the last few years,” Chalmers said on ABC News Breakfast.
“It’s a very damaging development, damaging for our democracy, it can be damaging for people’s mental health to get the wrong information on social media. So of course we are concerned about that.”
Sport
Gold Coaster Jayden Eynaud set to fight former UFC star Uriah Hall after online feud
An online feud between UFC legend Uriah Hall and three-time kickboxing world champion Jayden Eynaud, known for his appearance on Married At First Sight, is set to escalate into a showdown in the ring, reports news.com.au‘s Mitch Bourke.
The rivalry ignited following Eynaud’s stunning first-round knockout of Adam Rosa Ramos at Karate Combat 51 in Miami on 19 December. After his debut victory, the Gold Coast-based fighter called out Karate Combat president Asim Zaidi, demanding a $100,000 knockout bonus—a perk offered by a competing promoter.
“Everyone in the crowd thought it was worthy of a bonus … a closed mouth doesn’t get fed, so you’ve got to ask,” Eynaud said. “It was a pretty good [knockout]; the guy was out for probably five or six minutes. I was happy to put on a performance for my first show.”
Now, the former UFC star has joined the fray, calling out Eynaud online. “This old UFC fighter is calling me out, so I thought, f*** him, we’ll have to go knock him out too,” Eynaud declared.
Tech
Here are the startups Jeff Bezos invested in last year
Before meeting billionaire Jeff Bezos last April, Marko Bjelonic, cofounder and CEO of AI robotics company Swiss-Mile, took an unconventional approach to pitch his company. He sent Bezos his version of an Amazon-style 6-Pager—the iconic document central to Amazon’s strategic meetings—hoping it would streamline a potentially rushed video call. To his surprise, the call was not only unhurried but extended from 30 minutes to an hour. “It felt like a conversation,” Bjelonic told Forbes Australia’s Phoebe Liu.
That conversation proved fruitful. In August, Bezos co-led a $22 million funding round for Zurich-based Swiss-Mile, which is developing AI-powered robots resembling wiry, headless dogs with wheels for feet. The company is currently testing early prototypes on the streets of Zurich, with the goal of delivering items from point to point later this year.
Swiss-Mile is one of at least nine companies to receive investments from the world’s second-richest person in 2024, seven of which are artificial intelligence startups, according to Forbes research, PitchBook, and Preqin data. Four of those startups, including Swiss-Mile and Figure AI, focus on AI-powered robotics—a sector Bezos had not publicly prioritised as a venture investor before last year. A representative for Bezos declined to comment.