Claim ‘personal and unwarranted attack’ is smokescreen to deflect from poor performance
He condemned the IN&M statement as a “highly personal and unwarranted attack on the company’s largest independent shareholder and appears to be designed to deflect attention from the company’s disappointing stock performance”.
“I have always been, and remain, committed to investing for long-term value for all shareholders and look forward to seeing signs of a similar approach from the board of directors of Independent News & Media,” he said.
As the tit-for-tat exchanges continued yesterday evening it emerged Mr O’Brien had challenged Tony O’Reilly Senior to a “head-to-head” debate on RTÉ’s Prime Time programme on the group’s future, screened last night.
A spokesman for IN&M said Prime Time had not asked for Mr O’Reilly Snr to take part in the programme even though he is the group’s chief executive.
The IN&M spokesman alleged Mr O’Brien was using the head-to-head challenge as a “smokescreen” and as an excuse for not going on the programme to answer the 18 “hard questions” IN&M has issued yesterday concerning Mr O’Brien, his motives in trying to undermine the existing board of the group and his own corporate track record. At the launch of the group’s results for 2007 yesterday in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel, the O’Reilly dominated IN&M listed 18 questions that fundamentally challenged Mr O’Brien’s own business track record and his determination to talk down the worth of the multimedia group.
The list of questions asked how Mr O’Brien’s track record stood as a manager and &queried the value of his Digicel operations focused on the Caribbean. It asked has Digicel an appropriate capital structure when it has little equity and a high borrowings?
The group’s chief operating officer Gavin O’Reilly also handed out copies of two letters between himself and Mr O’Brien in 2003.
In the first, Mr O’Reilly congratulates Mr O’Brien for his “incredible perseverance, drive, creativity and generosity” as chairman of the 2003 Special Olympics held in Ireland. Mr O’Brien responded three weeks later saying his first reaction had been to throw Mr O’Reilly’s letter in the bin. “As far as I am concerned Independent News & Media have spent the last seven years trying to destroy my reputation... While I am waiting for the appropriate time to rectify the damage, I note and appreciate your gesture,” wrote Mr O’Brien.
Mr O’Reilly said Mr O’Brien seemed to have a persecution complex and insisted the group was built on editorial independence.
“I find it rather surprising that you can write a gentleman a note of congratulations for doing a great day for Ireland Inc and you get back an Exocet missile... with clearly, what would appear to me, to be a barely veiled threat,” he said.
