EXCLUSIVE



NICK FALLOON, the executive chairman of Ten Network, had been secretly working on a management buyout of the television network before James Packer pounced on 18 per cent of the shares in a lightning sharemarket raid last week.

Mr Falloon, who has agreed to leave the company, was working with the US private equity investor Hellman & Friedman, which was to have financed the deal to take Ten private.

James Packer

It is understood that Hellman & Friedman's chairman, Brian Powers, was in Australia a few weeks ago working on the arrangements.

Mr Packer got wind of the management buyout plans and rushed into the market two weeks ago, forking out $280 million to get a stranglehold on the network. He has since gained the support of a number of Ten's major shareholders to take at least two board seats. Late yesterday, Mr Packer secured Mr Falloon's commitment to resign.