Tag Archives: Denis O’Brien

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The  Sunday Independent early edition (top) and later editions (above)

The current edition of The Phoenix magazine claims that Sunday Independent editor Anne Harris has agreed early severance terms with Independent News and Media and will leave in October.

Yesterday’s Sunday Independent published an opinion piece by Ms Harris claiming that The Phoenix article was entirely incorrect, saying: ‘the whole story is a lie’.

However Ms Harris’ column in the  Saturday Night Edition of the Sunday Independent – which reaches shops in Dublin on Saturday night – was different the paper’s later edition – which usually reaches shops nationwide early Sunday morning. to wit:

Gavin Sheridan, of TheStory.ie, writes:

There was one critical paragraph that was substantially edited between editions (there are other changes too but I think this is the more significant). The early edition of the paragraph was written thusly (emphasis mine):
‘Since, as I pointed out earlier, none of this is true, I am clearly not the only one defamed. Denis O’Brien is the major shareholder in INM. In theory, with 29pc of the shares, he does not control it. In practice, he does.
But in the later edition of the paper, it said:
‘Since, as I pointed out earlier, none of this is true, I am clearly not the only one defamed. Denis O’Brien is the major shareholder in INM. In theory, with 29pc of the shares, he does not control it.’
I’m not sure this clearly significant change could be blamed on an over zealous sub-editor. The meaning of the entire paragraph has been altered. Why was the column changed and by whom? Was it done with the permission of the editor and author? Which column represents the truly held beliefs of that author? Surely it can’t be both?”

Anyone?

Why was this Anne Harris Sunday Independent column modified? (thestory.ie)

Thanks Gavin

denisBaloonMwahahahaha.

Etc.

The purchase of three major Irish businesses over the past two years by the billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien involved total bank write-offs of more than €300 million.
The deals saw the businessman invest €230 million to acquire the Siteserv Group, the Topaz Group and the Beacon Private Hospital.
The Siteserv deal saw the State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which is now in liquidation, write off €110 million of the €150 million it was owed. Mr O’Brien’s move to become the major shareholder in the Topaz Group earlier this year involved the IBRC writing off slightly more than half of the €304 million it was owed.

Banks write off over €300m in three deals with Denis O’Brien (Colm Keena, Irish Times)

cowendenis

[Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen speaks with Denis O’Brien at the end of the Global Irish Economic Forum in September 2009]

 

Sell Topaz.

Or buy Topaz ‘short’ but sell ‘long’?

Maybe get out of fossil fuels altogether?

Etc.

Previously: Topaz The Morning To You

Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

SeanPenn

…And two-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn [with the Executive Director of NGO Frontline Deefenders, Mary Lawlor] in City Hall, Dublin this morning

Sean Penn presents Human Rights Award in Dublin (Newstalk)

Via Sinéad Crowley

Update:

BiHikbGIYAAoMac

Sean Penn and Emer Costello TD MEP getting billionaire photobombed.

Via Emer Costello

denis

Denis O’Brien is on course to become the fourth largest player in the UK radio market after buying eight stations from Global Radio in a deal believed to be worth £35million.

The Guardian reports:

O’Brien’s media company Communicorp, which runs 40 radio stations across eight countries including Ireland, has picked up the stations that Global Radio has been forced to sell off by competition regulators following its £70m acquisition of GMG Radio.

Communicorp has acquired Smooth East Midlands, Smooth North West, Smooth North East, Capital Scotland, Capital South Wales, Real Radio North Wales, Real Radio Yorkshire and Real XS Manchester. The eight stations have a combined audience of 2.8 million listeners.

Denis O’Brien to buy eight Global Radio stations (The Guardian)

Topaz

Yesterday, Aine Coffey reported in The Sunday Times how Denis O’Brien is poised to take full control of Topaz, Ireland’s biggest liquid fuel supplier.

Coffey also reported how Topaz staff were informed last week that O’Brien’s associate John Callaghan has been made chairman, while Dermot Dwyer, of Siteserv, has been appointed to the board.

It’s believed he will learn this week if his bid for Topaz’s IBRC loans is successful.

It may be worth bearing in mind that IBRC wrote off more than €64m in debt owed by a British fuels company Blue Ocean Associates before it was taken over by a consortium which included Denis O’Brien.

And IBRC wrote off around €100million in debt belong to Siteserv, before O’Brien bought it for €45million – while he himself owed Anglo hundreds of millions.

Good times.

EndaMullholland

(Enda Kenny with Joe Mulholland, founder of the McGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal in 2011.)

While announcing that the papers presented at the 2013 MacGill Summer School are now available to read online, the school’s founder Joe Mulholland has written a blog post for politicalreform.ie.

He writes:

“For several years now, and especially since the sudden and brutal fall of the Celtic Tiger, the MacGill School has focussed on reform of the institutions of the state – political, social and economic. With webcasting and the sterling work of our colleagues in broadcasting and the press, this message goes far beyond the conference hall. As has been pointed out many times at MacGill, radical reform of our politics and governance in general has to be a priority if we are not to have recurring crises of the kind we are living painfully through at this time and it has to come from the bottom up.”

“Of course, other European countries are also in deep crisis but we appear to have had nothing but crises since the foundation of the state and have only once been able to offer our citizens the fundamental right of a job in their own country and that was in the first decade of the 21st century. We blew it by having people in authority in various sectors who were, to say the least, negligent and incompetent – and unaccountable.“

And yet.

 

Previously: Blessed Are The Whistleblowers

Looking to 2016 – How stands the Republic? (The Irish Politics Forum)

Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

00144095JustineYesterday’s Sunday Times  reported about a scheduled photocall with Labour leader and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Denis O’Brien which took place on October 9.

A spokesperson forLabour’s deputy leader Joan Burton told the paper

“Photocalls for the Tánaiste are a matter for the Tánaiste’s office and the minister has no objection to the same.”

 

Meanwhile…

“There has been considerable public and political unease about the fact that Mr. O’Brien has continued to pop up at various public events, most recently at the New York Stock Exchange. However, the Taoiseach was invited to attend that stock exchange event. The organisers of the event not the Office of the Taoiseach decided who was on the balcony for the bell ringing ceremony. It is perhaps time for the Government to reflect on how it should in future interact with people against whom adverse findings have been made by tribunals.”

“We do not want to return to the days of, “uno duce, una voce“, the immortal phrase which the former Fianna Fáil press secretary P.J. Mara, himself a tribunal veteran, used to describe Charles Haughey, nor do we want a Berlusconi style media-political complex with its attendant codes of omertà undermining the principles of transparent democracy. In this regard I welcome the statement by my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, on the introduction of legislation to deal with the registration of lobbyists, ethics for public representatives and office holders and transparency in public life. We should look back to the 1830s in the United Kingdom and the great reform Acts which were introduced to clean up politics and end the rotten boroughs for election to Parliament.”

“We live in a Republic and the representation of each citizen should be what counts rather than the amount of money a particular citizen can spend. We can look forward to a period of reform in which this Government will change the political landscape and our capacity to report and hold to account lobbyists.”

“The Ten Commandments prohibited murder and envy but they did not put an end to sin. Similarly, this House needs to legislate for transparency and accountability from all elected representatives and office holders.”

 

Joan Burton, March 2012

Previously: Mwhahaha

Bringing Denis Down To Size

denisBaloon

The current edition of The Phoenix magazine reports that the launch of a €40million rights issue, which will lead to banks writing off €141million in loans to Independent News and Media, may see Denis O’Brien’s shareholding in INM rise from 30% to 60%.

It’s believed Mr O’Brien spent €600m building up his 30% shareholding in the company, which owns, amongst other media outlets, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent, The Herald, Sunday World, The Star, and 13 regional weekly titles.

Mr O’Brien’s Communicorp Groups owns Newstalk, Today FM, 98FM, Spin 1038, Spin South West and Highland Radio.

Meanwhile, Tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore is scheduled to pose for photographers with Denis O’Brien tomorrow, at the opening of an international human rights conference, called Dublin Platform, organised by Front Line Defenders, which is chaired by Mr O’Brien.

Previously: A €140m Write-Off From Bank Of Ireland And AIB 

So, You Know That Denis O’Brien Story…

Denis O’Brien: Dividends, Debt And Paying Back Anglo 

 (Photocall Ireland)