Austereo’s merger green light fails to impress market as Ive Group’s run up Unmade Index continues

Tim Burrowes

November 4, 2025 5:07

News that the Seven West Media – Southern Cross Austereo merger had cleared another hurdle failed to move the market today, with SWM shares losing 2.1% and SCA losing 1.7%.

The combined market capitalisation of the two stocks currently sits at $414.3m – just below the $417m they were together worth when the deal was announced in September. SCA today told the ASX that the expert report it had commissioned from Kroll has concluded that the deal is in the best interest of shareholders, who will not be allowed to vote on it. SWM shareholders are due to vote at some point this side of Christmas.

Meanwhile, Ive Group’s share price climbed to its highest point in more than two months with another improvement of 1.1% today.

The printing and market company’s rise to a market capitalisation of $430m came after yesterday’s news of a print acquisition and a new deal with Domino’s.

Thanks to the distraction of the Melbourne Cup, it was a relatively quiet day on the Unmade Index. Ooh Media also rose by 1.1% to a $741m market cap, and Nine was up 0.9%.

Vinyl Group lost 1.2%.

The Unmade Index closed on 467 points, an improvement of 0.31% for the day. By contrast, the wider ASX All Ordinaries reacted negatively to the Reserve Bank’s decision not to cut interest rates, and declined by 0.9%.

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.