AGM adds to INM puzzle but offers no answers

Independent News and Media general meetings always seem to offer an extra ‘off-menu’ something or other — whether good or bad — to keep the interest of the casual observer piqued.

The media group has, in recent years, somewhat cornered the market in terms of interest-filled public meetings, the uneasy entertainment of the events becoming nearly as much a certainty of life as death and taxes, these days.

The run-up to yesterday’s AGM was dominated by the status of INM’s latest board dispute, between chief executive Robert Pitt and chairman/majority shareholder Denis O’Brien’s board representative Leslie Buckley, surrounding the valuation of a potential INM takeover offer for Mr O’Brien’s Newstalk radio station.