Fairfax Nine takeover: Australia’s oldest media empire ends with $4bn merger

Combined media company will rival Murdoch’s News Corp Australia in size

• Amanda Meade
• The Guardian

Australia’s oldest newspaper company Fairfax Media has been swallowed up by the national television network, Nine Entertainment, in a shock mergerthat spells the end of the 177-year-old legacy media name.

While journalists at Fairfax’s two largest mastheads, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, furiously accused chief executive Greg Hywood of selling them out, media buyers and analysts welcomed what is the first major media consolidation since federal media ownership…

The combined media…

• Fairfax Nine takeover…