Latest / What the Flux / Realestate.com.au to become British? | HESTA pushes for gender targets | Google major court case 2.0
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: This is what the Flux.
- 0:06Speaker 2: I'm justin and I'm harsh deep, and it's Friday, the
- 0:09Speaker 2: thirteenth of September.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Ag Andy Warhol may be turning his grave right now
- 0:14Speaker 1: because Campbell Soup Company has announced plans to change its name.
- 0:18Speaker 1: Do not worry, though it's not going too far. Campbell
- 0:20Speaker 1: Soup Company will be changed the Campbell's Company, I must say,
- 0:25Speaker 1: given they also own Kettle's Chips and Fregel sauces, kind
- 0:28Speaker 1: of makes sense. It's still a very sad loss.
- 0:30Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Jazz Friday isn't only the best workday of
- 0:33Speaker 2: the week because it's just before the weekend, but also
- 0:36Speaker 2: because it's our quick sticks day. That means if you're
- 0:38Speaker 2: the first to answer three business questions correctly in the
- 0:41Speaker 2: Flex app, you'll win fifty bucks. So make sure to
- 0:44Speaker 2: download the Flux app and turn your notifications on.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Three quizzical stories today. HD.
- 0:50Speaker 2: Let's get into it for our first.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Aria Group, the owner of real estate dot com doa AU,
- 0:54Speaker 1: has had its first offer to acquire Right Move rejected,
- 0:57Speaker 1: but it may come back for more.
- 1:00Speaker 2: The first offer is almost never the final offer. But
- 1:02Speaker 2: tell me more about this one.
- 1:04Speaker 1: Okay, So last week we spoke about how Aria Group
- 1:06Speaker 1: was looking to acquire a UK based company called right Move. Yeah.
- 1:10Speaker 2: Right Move is the UK's largest online real estate property
- 1:13Speaker 2: portal and it's listed on the London Stock Exchange.
- 1:15Speaker 1: It's kind of like the real estate dot com dot
- 1:17Speaker 1: i use equivalent over the pond in the UK.
- 1:19Speaker 2: Now Jazz. It was revealed that Aria Group was looking
- 1:22Speaker 2: to make an eleven billion dollar offer for right.
- 1:24Speaker 1: Move, which is a twenty seven percent premium to right
- 1:27Speaker 1: Move share price on August thirty.
- 1:29Speaker 2: But Right Movers come out and rejected this offer faster
- 1:32Speaker 2: than an auctioneer can stay sold.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Yeah. Right Move said the offer was wholly opportunistic and if.
- 1:38Speaker 2: That wasn't enough, they also said that the offer fundamentally
- 1:41Speaker 2: undervalued right Move and its future prospects.
- 1:44Speaker 1: Out But HD it ain't over yet because Aria Group
- 1:47Speaker 1: is reassessing its options and could come back with a
- 1:50Speaker 1: revised and improved.
- 1:52Speaker 2: Offer and Jazz Aria said if the deal was to
- 1:54Speaker 2: go through, it would apply for a listing on the
- 1:57Speaker 2: London Stock Exchange.
- 1:58Speaker 1: Interesting, so tell me what is the key learning here?
- 2:00Speaker 2: Global ambitions demand a global stage listing on a major
- 2:04Speaker 2: exchange can open the door to more sophisticated institutional investors.
- 2:08Speaker 1: These are investors who may prefer to investing companies listed
- 2:11Speaker 1: on well regulated and internationally recognized exchanges.
- 2:14Speaker 2: You see, jazz Aria Group is currently valued at twenty
- 2:17Speaker 2: seven billion dollars. It's the eighteenth largest listed company on
- 2:21Speaker 2: the ASX, So rather than.
- 2:22Speaker 1: Being a big fish in a small ASX pond, listing
- 2:26Speaker 1: on the London Stock Exchange would allow Aria Group to
- 2:28Speaker 1: become accessible to a whole new market of investors.
- 2:31Speaker 2: And jazz Aria Group wouldn't be the only ASX listed
- 2:34Speaker 2: company to jump ship to another exchange.
- 2:37Speaker 1: Nope. Remember recently Life three sixty, the AX listed child
- 2:40Speaker 1: tracking are YEP.
- 2:41Speaker 2: They listed on the Nasdaq in June this year to
- 2:44Speaker 2: get exposure to a bigger market.
- 2:46Speaker 1: So for Aria Group, listing on the London Stock Exchange
- 2:49Speaker 1: could be a critical step in cementing its position as
- 2:52Speaker 1: a global digital property leader.
- 2:54Speaker 2: For our second story, hester the super Fund is putting
- 2:57Speaker 2: pressure on Australia's largest companies to ad gender targets across
- 3:01Speaker 2: their entire organization.
- 3:02Speaker 1: You've heard of voting with your olid HD, but now
- 3:04Speaker 1: it's voting with your super So tell me what's going
- 3:07Speaker 1: out here so we.
- 3:07Speaker 2: Know superannuation funds as the pots of gold at the
- 3:10Speaker 2: end of the rainbow for Ozzie workers.
- 3:12Speaker 1: Yeah, and HESTER is the industry super fund for workers
- 3:15Speaker 1: in the health and community service sector.
- 3:17Speaker 2: We're talking eighty seven billion dollars in funds under management.
- 3:20Speaker 1: We're also talking more than nine hundred and fifty thousand members,
- 3:23Speaker 1: of which eighty percent are women.
- 3:25Speaker 2: So does it's not surprising that HESTER is now putting
- 3:28Speaker 2: pressure on Australia's largest companies to adopt gender targets.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Yeah. Hester's written to the chairs and chief executives of
- 3:34Speaker 1: the ASEX three hundred companies it invests in, and.
- 3:37Speaker 2: It's asking these chairs and CEOs to commit to ensuring
- 3:40Speaker 2: forty percent of its staff are women.
- 3:42Speaker 1: And if these companies don't hit that target, Hester is
- 3:45Speaker 1: threatened to vote against executive remuneration, in.
- 3:48Speaker 2: Other words, hitting the execs right where it hurts them.
- 3:51Speaker 1: Yeah. Talk about shareholder activism.
- 3:53Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So tell me what's the key learning here? Does?
- 3:55Speaker 1: Shareholder activism is when big investors leverage their ownership power
- 3:59Speaker 1: to push companies to make changes, and.
- 4:02Speaker 2: In this case, it's about making companies more socially responsible.
- 4:05Speaker 1: Actually, Hester's focus is on gender equality and they're using
- 4:08Speaker 1: their voting power to nudge companies into setting gender diversity
- 4:12Speaker 1: goals across all levels.
- 4:14Speaker 2: Recently, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in Australia released some
- 4:18Speaker 2: pretty alarming data.
- 4:20Speaker 1: Yeah, they revealed that the gender pay gap was more
- 4:22Speaker 1: than twenty percent in the private sector.
- 4:24Speaker 2: So hester Reckins, now is the time to push for
- 4:27Speaker 2: change even harder.
- 4:28Speaker 1: Yeah, they're hoping that by setting these gender targets across
- 4:31Speaker 1: entire organizations and not just at the board or exec level,
- 4:34Speaker 1: it's going to address the gender pay gap and.
- 4:36Speaker 2: If successful, this will be proof that investors can do
- 4:39Speaker 2: more than just watch their stocks. They can actually influence
- 4:42Speaker 2: real change.
- 4:43Speaker 1: True. For our third and final story, Google is facing
- 4:47Speaker 1: its second antitrust case against the US Department of Justice
- 4:50Speaker 1: in just two months, and this time it's for allegedly
- 4:54Speaker 1: monopolizing the digital ad industry.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Google's under the interrogation lamp once again. Tell me more.
- 5:00Speaker 1: Okay, so Google maybe a tech giant worth close to
- 5:03Speaker 1: two trillion US dollars, but lately it's been facing more
- 5:06Speaker 1: legal disputes than it can handle. Oh yeah.
- 5:08Speaker 2: Last year there was Google's battle with Epic Games, the
- 5:11Speaker 2: owner of Fortnite, which it lost.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Then there's been three anti trust cases in the European Union,
- 5:15Speaker 1: all three of which it lost, but is now appealing
- 5:17Speaker 1: and now does.
- 5:18Speaker 2: This week, Google has begun its second antitrust case against
- 5:22Speaker 2: the US Department of Justice.
- 5:23Speaker 1: Now, actually, the Department of Justice is alleging that Google
- 5:26Speaker 1: is illegally monopolizing the market for digital ads technology. How so, well,
- 5:31Speaker 1: it claims the Google's acquiring its competitors when they become
- 5:34Speaker 1: a threat and forcing website publishers to use Google's tools.
- 5:37Speaker 2: And this has effectively allowed Google to dominate both the
- 5:40Speaker 2: buyer and seller side of the ad marketplace.
- 5:43Speaker 1: But this time at she the US seems to have
- 5:45Speaker 1: taken a leaf out of the EU's book, because it's
- 5:47Speaker 1: coming down on Google pretty darn hard.
- 5:50Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so what's the key learning here?
- 5:52Speaker 1: Well, the EU has largely led the charge in keeping
- 5:55Speaker 1: tech giants in check, the US is starting to catch up.
- 5:58Speaker 2: In fact, just early this week, the EU hit Google
- 6:01Speaker 2: with a two point four billion euro fine and then
- 6:04Speaker 2: hit Apple with a thirteen billion euro tax bill pouch.
- 6:08Speaker 1: But now, atchie, it looks like the US is getting
- 6:10Speaker 1: on board two and no longer giving tech giants a
- 6:12Speaker 1: free pass. Yep.
- 6:13Speaker 2: Last month's case against Google was the first time US
- 6:17Speaker 2: prosecutors have successfully launched an antitrust case against a tech
- 6:20Speaker 2: platform like Google.
- 6:22Speaker 1: And recently the US Department of Justice has also broadcases
- 6:24Speaker 1: against Apple and Amazon and MITA as well.
- 6:27Speaker 2: Now, while the US is one of the biggest markets
- 6:29Speaker 2: for tech giants like Google, tech companies are starting to
- 6:32Speaker 2: realize that their relationship with US regulators is changing.
- 6:35Speaker 1: Flux Sam, if you want to check off the weekend
- 6:37Speaker 1: on the best book possible, it all starts with fifty
- 6:40Speaker 1: dollars in your pocket and that means playing quick Sticks today.
- 6:42Speaker 1: All you've got to do is download the Flux Out,
- 6:44Speaker 1: be the first to answer three business questions correctly, and
- 6:47Speaker 1: the fifty bucks is all yours to Make sure to
- 6:49Speaker 1: download the Flux Out and turn your notifications on.
- 6:51Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Monday.