James Warburton is to join Ten Network in January 2012 in a compromise court judgement delivered today.
The decision concludes Seven Media Group's (SMG) high-profile legal dispute with outgoing senior executive Warburton, who was poached in March by the Ten Network to be its new chief executive, with a July 14 starting date. Today's judgement clears him to start work from January 1 next year.
SMG issued a statement following the decision: "SMG welcomed today the decision of the Supreme Court of NSW upholding the action it instituted against James Warburton to enforce the restraint contained in the Management Equity Plan (MEP) document that he signed along with other senior executives of Seven in 2007.
"Contracts are important in our business and it is our policy to enforce them consistently.Seven also welcomed the dismissal of Mr Warburton’s cross claim and the decision on costs."
The statement also contained a comment from CEO David Leckie, who said: "I am glad the date when James can commence with Network Ten has been determined and that his cross claim has been dismissed. He was a valuable member of the Seven team. We wish him good luck.”
Ten issued its own statement in which Ten Holdings chairman, Brian Long, said: “We now have certainty about James’s starting date and, while we are disappointed it has been delayed, the business continues to benefit from the actions being taken by interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch.”
“Lachlan is driving a focussed and aggressive change agenda. We are already seeing results, including action on costs, cross-platform and integrated sales, a successfully re-launched ONE and improvements in News.
“There will be a smooth transition between Lachlan and James, and the strategies underway will accelerate our growth plans.”
SMG took both parties to court arguing the terms of Warburton's employment contract and management equity plan prevented him from starting at Ten until October next year.
Judge Michael Pembroke of the NSW Supreme Court had indicated previously that Warburton's start date would be no later than next March.
Warburton claimed Leckie was blocking Warburton's path to CEO of SMG. He also alleged that Leckie described the board of West Australian Newspapers board as "dopes" and "idiots" in the lead up to the company's $4 billion acquisition of SMG.
The court case took another twist when Seven Group executive chairman Kerry Stokes was recorded by reporters accusing Warburton of "embellishing the truth" while the court case was still ongoing.
Warburton's team then accused Stokes of contempt of court and claimed the management equity plan he had at Seven was worthless.
The new Ten CEO said his agreement with Seven was repudiated when Leckie said he was "free to go" to Ten, a claim Leckie denied.
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