The turnaround that tanked
And a sovereign fund with no way out.
As promised, today’s newsletter is more on the business side of things. Let’s get to it.
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On Monday, Astro announced the departure of Euan Smith as Group CEO, and replacing him in the interim is the very man he succeeded: Henry Tan.
Smith’s departure sent me back to his interview with Digital News Asia in July last year.
There he was, waving away Astro’s grim prognosis with a whiteboard and doodles and an infectious optimism, declaring that he “would not be in the building” if he didn’t believe the media firm had a very bright and positive future.
He sold them the gospel of Astro’s “three big bets”: the sooka streaming app, broadband, and addressable advertising.
He even played the wounded party on legacy satellite costs, lamenting that he hated being “beaten up in the markets” for “doing the right thing for Malaysia”.
Such was his aura that DNA’s writers entered the premise with “some trepidation”.
Less than a year later, Smith is out of the building.
After three years helming a brutal financial slide, he stepped down, and the board pulled the ripcord by reinstating Tan to stop the bleeding.
The irony here is thick.