....while management of large companies try to generate positive optics to aim for growth (except they end up overpaying), over time they get themselves into trouble trying too earnestly to deliver that growth.
....the solution is to provide a more suitable CEO compensation framework, the elephant in the room no one wants to tackle because that would be against free market practices. Corporate Greed stems from how we compensate CEOs. ACCC sues Coles, Woolworths for misleading on price discounts
Cecile Lefort
The competition regulator is suing Woolworths and Coles, alleging the country’s two largest supermarkets have misled customers about discounts on common products.
“Following many years of marketing campaigns by Woolworths and Coles, Australian consumers have come to understand that the ‘Prices Dropped’ and ‘Down Down’ promotions relate to a sustained reduction in the regular prices of supermarket products.
“However, in the case of these products, we allege the new ‘Prices Dropped’ and ‘Down Down’ promotional prices were actually higher than, or the same as, the previous regular price,” said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
The competition regulator alleges that Woolworths misled consumers on 266 products at different times for 20 months. At Coles, the conduct relates to 245 products across 15 months.
The ACCC is seeking declarations, penalties, costs and other orders. The regulator is also seeking community service orders that Woolworths and Coles must each fund a registered charity to deliver meals to Australians in need, in addition to their pre-existing charitable meal delivery programs.
Products affected include dozens of popular brands such as Arnott’s Tim Tam biscuits, Danone yoghurt, Palmolive shampoo and Coca-Cola soft drink.
REA makes third bid for Britain’s Rightmove
Sam Buckingham-Jones
News Corp-backed property listings giant REA Group has made a third, higher offer for UK platform Rightmove, valuing the company at £6.1 billion ($11.9 billion), or £7.70 a share.
In an ASX announcement on Monday morning, REA noted its second offer of about £7.49 had been rejected. The new offer, £3.41 in cash and 0.0422 new REA shares, is an increase of 9.2 per cent on its initial offer. It is a 41 per cent premium to Rightmove’s six-month average price.
REA chief executive Owen Wilson said the new offer “provides a combination of immediate value certainty in cash and at the same time gives Rightmove shareholders an increasing opportunity in core digital property and adjacencies, where we have much expertise”.
He said REA was “genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement by Rightmove’s board and we strongly encourage the Rightmove board to engage”.
