Jones woes could lower Nine offer for Macquarie

Nine Entertainment Co could potentially renegotiate its A$114 million (NZ$121m) takeover bid for Macquarie Media if the radio business suffered a significant earnings hit amid a sponsor boycott against Alan Jones and a weaker advertising market. Nine, which has a 54.4 per cent stake in Macquarie, made a conditional offer in August to buy the rest of the network. A bidder statement from Nine released to the ASX explains that one of the conditions is ‘‘no adverse material change’’ such as an ongoing reduction to the annual underlying consolidated earning of A$3 million or more.