EMAP CEO Tom Moloney has left the company somewhat abruptly "by mutual agreement". The departure comes after months of speculation as to Moloney's future at the media conglom after they admitted earlier in the year that profits for the financial year would be at the bottom end of expectations. Up until now, though, the EMAP board have insisted they were behind their top man.
With no immediate replacement to hand, the group's chairman, Alun Cathcart, will take on day to day responsibility for running the media firm until a new CEO can be recruited, a process that is likely to take up to three months.
According to The Guardian, city types are saying that a CEO-less EMAP will be much more susceptible to an aggressive takeover, possibly by one or another of the private equity groups who would most likely split up the company's TV/radio, consumer magazine and b2b magazine businesses - the latter being the most attractive to investment types, the b2b magazine sector being less threatened by the growth of digital and fluctuations in the advertising market.