Bruce Gordon first tasted commercial success as a teenage magician, performing at clubs, local theatres and army barracks. Now at 85, he holds the key cards in the fight for Channel Ten. It could be the WIN Corporation owner's final big trick in a remarkable career in broadcast media.
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The reclusive billionaire ventured away from his estate in Bermuda late last year to attend Ten Network Holdings' annual meeting (as he always does).
He sat silently at the back of the ballroom at Sydney's Four Seasons Hotel, listening to the free-to-air broadcaster's management and directors explain how it was handling a series of takeover approaches, and their plans to turn it around. As soon as the meeting closed, he left.
Mr Gordon - who is Australia's 34th richest person with an estimated fortune of $1.1 billion according to BRW - is Ten's biggest shareholder. He owns 14.9 per cent of the company, a larger slug than any of the other billionaires on the shareholder register - James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Gina Rinehart.
He has his owns plans to flip the broadcaster's flagging fortunes, having placed a debt restructuring proposal to the network's board. However, his vision has struggled to gain traction. Ten's board say they can't accept because a sale process is already under way. They might also doubt whether he can deliver on his plan, given he is believed to have made several rescue proposals in recent years and failed to follow through.
And yet his approval is critical to any successful deal.
Many are asking what the octogenarian wants with a network which has struggled with sliding ratings and a poor advertising market, not to mention seeing its share price plummet from more than $1 to about 20¢ a share in the past four years.
Executives who know him well describe Mr Gordon variously as mercurial, a great story-teller, good lunch company, respectful, someone who knows how to play the game, and conniving when he needs to be.
He is also famously frugal - and hard as nails. In an explosive 2013 affidavit sworn by Rodney Hockey, who successfully sued WIN for a $400,000 notice payment, the former WIN executive alleged many instances of bullying by Mr Gordon, including being called a "prick", a "lump of wood" and an "idiot".
The mogul, who declined to comment for this article, bought into Ten at more than $1.50 (and as high as $3) over the years in a variety of ways at a variety of times. He now wants to be part of its recovery and believes he has the expertise.
Discovery Communications and Foxtel's leading joint offer for Ten was pitched at 23¢. They are motivated in part by secondary revenue opportunities as they would gain a free-to-air platform to distribute sports rights and offset content costs. But 23¢ would crystallise a huge loss for Mr Gordon, who would get no such benefits. He wants to know, what's in it for him?
And WIN is facing an uncertain future. Its metropolitan affiliate partner Nine Entertainment Co, which supplies it with content, has warned that it could bypass WIN by simply broadcasting to the regions over the internet. That could make WIN's regional licences nearly worthless. But if Mr Gordon controls Ten, his regional licences remain valuable and assured of a future, observers say.
Greater control of Ten would also give him a potentially national network if the government, or a future one, abolishes the 75 per cent reach rule that prevents metropolitan and regional networks from merging.
Mr Gordon considered acquiring both the Ten and Nine networks through WIN on separate occasions between 2009 and 2013, but could not get his plans past the media regulator.
He is now thought to be debt free after selling WIN's Adelaide and Perth stations to Nine, and WIN is believed to throw off $50 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation each year. So he has the flexibility to chase deals.
Mr Gordon first signalled his intent to spoil the Ten party in November, telling The Australian Financial Review he was "definitely not a seller". In response Discovery and Foxtel's advisers devised a two-class share structure to win his approval.
It then emerged that he was supportive of Foxtel's involvement (although less favourable to Discovery). But last month the Financial Review revealed that he is likely to oppose their offer in favour of his own alternative debt proposal, which gives him more control.
It could put Mr Gordon in conflict with News Corporation co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch and Crown Resorts chairman James Packer, who each own 9 per cent of Ten and are believed to favour a conventional offer for their shares.
His involvement with Ten pre-dates theirs by many years, so there could be an emotional attachment too.
In the early 1990s Canadian media mogul Israel "Izzy" Asper was looking for television assets and Mr Gordon - who had been a shareholder decades before - pointed him in the direction of Ten, which was in the hands of the receivers at the time. Mr Gordon had sold films to Mr Asper many times in his 35 years as president of international sales for Paramount.
But he began his show-business career when he was 14, juggling fruit to lure shoppers to his father's fruit stand in Sydney's Pitt Street. From there he used those skills to become a magician and soon became good enough to land a gig at Sydney's Tivoli Theatre. He soon moved into management, handling advertising and promotion for all the theatre's shows.
It was in this role that he met Rupert Murdoch. The pair crossed paths after Mr Murdoch had just taken over the Adelaide News and Mr Gordon was promoting the Tivoli in Adelaide. In 1958, Mr Murdoch asked Mr Gordon to run his Adelaide Television. He turned down the upcoming media baron.
He was also close friends with Kerry Packer and his key television lieutenant Bruce Gyngell (father of David Gyngell, CEO of WIN Corp's broadcasting affiliate Nine).
From there, Mr Gordon was offered to run local sales for Desilu Productions, which produced I Love Lucy and was owned by Lucille Ball. Desilu was later bought by Paramount and Gordon went international, becoming the studio's manager for the Asian region.
He travelled to locations that were exotic at the time, including Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, selling American TV shows, including Mission Impossible and Star Trek.
Mr Gordon's role at Desilu and then Paramount didn't appear to sour his relationship with Murdoch. In 1979, he agreed to sell Murdoch his shareholding in Ten in exchange for Murdoch's majority stake in Wollongong TV station WIN. By the early 1990s he had bought out the remaining shareholders in WIN, and he still owns the company, which is Australia's biggest television network by area.
It is a private company, which lists Mr Gordon's family members, including his son Andrew (chairman) and daughter Genevieve as directors. It is excused from filing its accounts with the corporate regulator, instead seeking relief under class order 98/1418, in which wholly owned subsidiaries don't have to file their accounts when they enter into deeds of cross-guarantee with their parent entity and meet certain other conditions.
Mr Gordon has proposed a debt restructuring of Ten which would allow him to inject fresh capital in exchange for a debt instrument such as a convertible note. This would enable him to increase his economic interest in Ten without increasing his equity stake, which would breach the reach rule.
But Ten's independent directors have rebuffed the offer and are assessing four takeover proposals - from Discovery/Foxtel, New York-based fund manager Anchorage Capital Group, US special purpose acquisition vehicle Silver Eagle and American TV network turnaround specialist Saban Capital Group - which were submitted late last year.
Ten and its adviser Citi have been quiet about the auction, which they had hoped to finalise before Christmas. But Mr Gordon has managed to secure an ally - the embattled network's biggest institutional shareholder Lazard Asset Management, which owns just over 6 per cent of Ten.
It is understood that Lazard portfolio manager Rob Osborn, Mr Gordon and WIN chief executive Andrew Lancaster met in Sydney earlier this month to discuss Ten. It is believed that Lazard is expected to join Mr Gordon in blocking the Foxtel/Discovery bid - making it likely that the soap opera that is Channel Ten rolls on a while longer.
Expect more sleight of hand.