If any company exhibits the preconditions for change in 2025 it would have to be Nine Entertainment. Firstly, the company has initiated a strategic review. Secondly, one of Australia’s best known investor agitators, John Wylie, has stealthily built a shareholding. But perhaps most importantly, Nine’s share price is wallowing in a slump.

The company is now pregnant with possibilities and the biggest corporate guessing game in town is what will be born from the changes at Nine.

Wylie’s Tanarra Capital has a storied history of buying into unloved companies and pushing for change in strategy and/or management, so this entrance cannot be ignored.

Nine’s interim boss, Matt Stanton.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Additional change impetus is derived from Nine’s current state of fluid governance. Its most recent permanent chief executive, Mike Sneesby, left the building at the end of last year, leaving an interim replacement, Matt Stanton, who is clearly keen to demonstrate that he has the bona fides to overhaul the shape and performance of Nine (which owns this masthead).

Stanton has not yet been named successor, so his review of the operating assets feels a lot like his audition for the top job.

Meanwhile,........

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