Stefanovic Podcast Partnership Is Over — Now They Are Haggling Over the Price
The business behind The Karl Stefanovic Show has broken down for good, the NSW Supreme Court heard on Tuesday 15 September. The court heard Karl Stefanovic, 52, and Keshnee Ibrahim, 36, each own 45% of 123 Podcast, the company that runs the podcast The Guardian.
Ibrahim, also known as Kemp Australian Financial Review, is the producer behind the controversial podcast The Sydney Morning Herald. Stefanovic is a former Today host Nine. Their company, 123 Podcast, is now deadlocked at board level. That is the term for when directors cannot agree and no decision can get through.
Ibrahim filed an urgent application on Monday to put off a company meeting set for Friday 18 September. She told the court she feared she would be removed as a director if the meeting went ahead. Stefanovic agreed not to hold the Friday meeting. He also asked the court to sort out the buyout issue as early as next week.
Justice David Hammerschlag gave the pair two options. One was to wind up 123 Podcast equally, with a liquidator working out what it is worth. A liquidator is an independent person appointed to close a company and divide what is left. The other was for Stefanovic to buy out Ibrahim.
Stefanovic, through his lawyer Samuel Murray, agreed the breakdown with Ibrahim could not be fixed and a buyout of shares was appropriate. That admission came on Tuesday. It narrowed the fight to price and process.
On oppression, the two sides disagree. Oppression in company law means running a company in a way that is unfair to a shareholder. Ibrahim says 123 Podcast was run in a way that was oppressive to her interests. Stefanovic denies that. He did not accept the way the company was run justified an oppression finding, even though he agreed the relationship could not continue.
On price, Stefanovic wants any valuation to use the company's value from before 7 August. That date decides which trading, audience figures and reputational damage count toward the price. Justice Hammerschlag told lawyers for both sides to agree on an independent valuer. After a short adjournment, they agreed on a third party.
The judge was blunt. "There's going to be a buyout," he said. He set the next hearing for 13 October.
The show has been on hiatus since 24 August, when Stefanovic interviewed a de-aging expert. It has had about 23 million views on YouTube. Nine ended Stefanovic's job as Today host after public backlash to his interview with Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.
The broader context here is familiar in talent-led companies. A presenter and a producer lock in a creative partnership through a private company with near-equal shares and board seats. While the content rates, control is rarely tested. Once the broadcast contract ends and production stops, control is all that is left to argue over.
In my view, the next fight is already clear. An agreed buyout means no one has to prove oppression to get a result, but the valuation date will do most of the work. A pre-7 August date tries to leave later events out of the price. An oppression claim, if it is still pressed, tries to bring earlier unfair conduct back in. Appointing an independent valuer does not settle that legal question. It only sorts the method once the court decides it. The 13 October hearing will show whether this is still about principle, or just the number.
