REA Group, the owner of Realestate.com.au, has had its first offer to acquire UK’s Rightmove rejected - but it may come back for more.
HESTA, the super fund, is putting pressure on Australia’s largest companies to adopt gender targets across their entire organisation.
Google is facing its second antitrust trial against the US Department of Justice in just 2 months - for allegedly monopolising the digital advertising industry.
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This is what the Flux.
I'm justin and I'm harsh deep, and it's Friday, the thirteenth of September.
Ag Andy Warhol may be turning his grave right now because Campbell Soup Company has announced plans to change its name. Do not worry, though it's not going too far. Campbell Soup Company will be changed the Campbell's Company, I must say, given they also own Kettle's Chips and Fregel sauces, kind of makes sense. It's still a very sad loss.
Oh yeah, Jazz Friday isn't only the best workday of the week because it's just before the weekend, but also because it's our quick sticks day. That means if you're the first to answer three business questions correctly in the Flex app, you'll win fifty bucks. So make sure to download the Flux app and turn your notifications on.
Three quizzical stories today. HD.
Let's get into it for our first.
Aria Group, the owner of real estate dot com doa AU, has had its first offer to acquire Right Move rejected, but it may come back for more.
The first offer is almost never the final offer. But tell me more about this one.
Okay, So last week we spoke about how Aria Group was looking to acquire a UK based company called right Move. Yeah.
Right Move is the UK's largest online real estate property portal and it's listed on the London Stock Exchange.
It's kind of like the real estate dot com dot i use equivalent over the pond in the UK.
Now Jazz. It was revealed that Aria Group was looking to make an eleven billion dollar offer for right.
Move, which is a twenty seven percent premium to right Move share price on August thirty.
But Right Movers come out and rejected this offer faster than an auctioneer can stay sold.
Yeah. Right Move said the offer was wholly opportunistic and if.
That wasn't enough, they also said that the offer fundamentally undervalued right Move and its future prospects.
Out But HD it ain't over yet because Aria Group is reassessing its options and could come back with a revised and improved.
Offer and Jazz Aria said if the deal was to go through, it would apply for a listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Interesting, so tell me what is the key learning here?
Global ambitions demand a global stage listing on a major exchange can open the door to more sophisticated institutional investors.
These are investors who may prefer to investing companies listed on well regulated and internationally recognized exchanges.
You see, jazz Aria Group is currently valued at twenty seven billion dollars. It's the eighteenth largest listed company on the ASX, So rather than.
Being a big fish in a small ASX pond, listing on the London Stock Exchange would allow Aria Group to become accessible to a whole new market of investors.
And jazz Aria Group wouldn't be the only ASX listed company to jump ship to another exchange.
Nope. Remember recently Life three sixty, the AX listed child tracking are YEP.
They listed on the Nasdaq in June this year to get exposure to a bigger market.
So for Aria Group, listing on the London Stock Exchange could be a critical step in cementing its position as a global digital property leader.
For our second story, hester the super Fund is putting pressure on Australia's largest companies to ad gender targets across their entire organization.
You've heard of voting with your olid HD, but now it's voting with your super So tell me what's going out here so we.
Know superannuation funds as the pots of gold at the end of the rainbow for Ozzie workers.
Yeah, and HESTER is the industry super fund for workers in the health and community service sector.
We're talking eighty seven billion dollars in funds under management.
We're also talking more than nine hundred and fifty thousand members, of which eighty percent are women.
So does it's not surprising that HESTER is now putting pressure on Australia's largest companies to adopt gender targets.
Yeah. Hester's written to the chairs and chief executives of the ASEX three hundred companies it invests in, and.
It's asking these chairs and CEOs to commit to ensuring forty percent of its staff are women.
And if these companies don't hit that target, Hester is threatened to vote against executive remuneration, in.
Other words, hitting the execs right where it hurts them.
Yeah. Talk about shareholder activism.
Oh yeah, So tell me what's the key learning here? Does?
Shareholder activism is when big investors leverage their ownership power to push companies to make changes, and.
In this case, it's about making companies more socially responsible.
Actually, Hester's focus is on gender equality and they're using their voting power to nudge companies into setting gender diversity goals across all levels.
Recently, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in Australia released some pretty alarming data.
Yeah, they revealed that the gender pay gap was more than twenty percent in the private sector.
So hester Reckins, now is the time to push for change even harder.
Yeah, they're hoping that by setting these gender targets across entire organizations and not just at the board or exec level, it's going to address the gender pay gap and.
If successful, this will be proof that investors can do more than just watch their stocks. They can actually influence real change.
True. For our third and final story, Google is facing its second antitrust case against the US Department of Justice in just two months, and this time it's for allegedly monopolizing the digital ad industry.
Google's under the interrogation lamp once again. Tell me more.
Okay, so Google maybe a tech giant worth close to two trillion US dollars, but lately it's been facing more legal disputes than it can handle. Oh yeah.
Last year there was Google's battle with Epic Games, the owner of Fortnite, which it lost.
Then there's been three anti trust cases in the European Union, all three of which it lost, but is now appealing and now does.
This week, Google has begun its second antitrust case against the US Department of Justice.
Now, actually, the Department of Justice is alleging that Google is illegally monopolizing the market for digital ads technology. How so, well, it claims the Google's acquiring its competitors when they become a threat and forcing website publishers to use Google's tools.
And this has effectively allowed Google to dominate both the buyer and seller side of the ad marketplace.
But this time at she the US seems to have taken a leaf out of the EU's book, because it's coming down on Google pretty darn hard.
Oh yeah, so what's the key learning here?
Well, the EU has largely led the charge in keeping tech giants in check, the US is starting to catch up.
In fact, just early this week, the EU hit Google with a two point four billion euro fine and then hit Apple with a thirteen billion euro tax bill pouch.
But now, atchie, it looks like the US is getting on board two and no longer giving tech giants a free pass. Yep.
Last month's case against Google was the first time US prosecutors have successfully launched an antitrust case against a tech platform like Google.
And recently the US Department of Justice has also broadcases against Apple and Amazon and MITA as well.
Now, while the US is one of the biggest markets for tech giants like Google, tech companies are starting to realize that their relationship with US regulators is changing.
Flux Sam, if you want to check off the weekend on the best book possible, it all starts with fifty dollars in your pocket and that means playing quick Sticks today. All you've got to do is download the Flux Out, be the first to answer three business questions correctly, and the fifty bucks is all yours to Make sure to download the Flux Out and turn your notifications on.
Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Monday.