The shares were under pressure against a much stronger market yesterday as rumours spread that the company is suffering more than most in the current difficult trading conditions, just five weeks after reporting record first-half profits. A quick glance down any high street will reveal a mass of bargain basement mid-season sales trying to lure shoppers and, to make matters worse, it is nearly November and people are still wandering around in T-shirts. Corus nearly merged with CSN four years ago, so it's possible. I wouldn't count on it, though.j.warner independent.co.uk. The fashion retail trade is hard graft these days. The shares have refused to respond to this analysis, preferring instead to believe a Metal Bulletin story that Brazil's Cia Siderurgica Nacional is poised to enter the fray. Did anyone say 130p a share? Shhh.Is Corus about to attract a rival offer?I'm getting ready to eat my words on Corus, which I argued yesterday was highly unlikely to attract a higher offer than Tata's 455p a share.
By chance, his old partner in crime from London Weekend Television days, Sir Christopher Bland, will also soon be available for hire. He's due to stand down as chairman of BT in July next year, after performing a remarkable job in stabilising and turning around the telecoms goliath Now that's a partnership the City might be prepared to back. The prison of the latter severely compromises the freedom of the former.What's more, ITV is forced to compete with two powerful operatives - the BBC and Channel 4 - who like to behave in an aggressively commercial manner but are not hidebound by any of the usual commercial constraints. Mr Dyke made the right bets - on his scheduling, internet and digital strategies - but could he have done so without the licence fee? This seems more than a little questionable Like many in the media, cost control is not Mr Dyke's forte.
He's also a rebel, which as he found out to his cost, doesn't easily fit with a government that demands compliance from its media leaders.The difficulty for ITV is that it must face both ways at the same time - it must think commercially to satisfy its investors, yet it must act politically too to answer its continued public-service obligations. One of the reasons why there is no queue of media types lining up to fill Mr Allen's shoes is that they know the scale of the challenge faced. ITV is in the midst of an industry in profound structural change as audiences fragment between a myriad of new digital channels and competing, new-media outlets.The perfect candidate would perhaps be a cross between the creative and strategic flair of Greg Dyke and the penny pinching cost control of Mr Allen, not to mention an apparent gift for persuading regulators and government ministers alike into going along with his every wish. Unfortunately, the two things are almost certainly a contradiction in terms.Mr Dyke's success as director general of the BBC was in large measure down to the open cheque book allowed by an inflation-proofed revenue stream. The way things are going, the channel will soon be as extinct as the fossilised dinosaur remains on display at the venue for Tuesday's party. Is not a little more urgency required?To judge from the gossip - well informed or otherwise - one of the reasons it is taking so long is there has been something of a boardroom row about it all.
