'Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking again,' Don Corleone tells his son Sonny at one point in The Godfather. It takes time to trust '” a lot of time.
Then, too, Malone holds close to what is his.
He's owned much more in the past, but iiNet's most recently published list of its top 20 investors shows Malone still holds 11.85 percent of iiNet. That's not enough to block a potential takeover of the company, if there was substantial shareholder support for a buyout '” but it does represent an important factor in any buyout of iiNet.
With Amcom offloading its 23 percent stake in iiNet, Malone is set once again to become the company's largest shareholder. That shareholding, combined with his existing executive powers and substantial personal wealth that would allow him to quickly buy back substantial chunks of iiNet's issued capital if he chose to '” meaning the executive will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in iiNet's future.
Any company which wants to buy iiNet '” no matter if it's a hostile takeover or a friendly merger '” will need to consider what Malone's opinion of the situation would be.
