All change please. The major management and ownership changes announced at Mean Fiddler last week have been reversed following protests from rebel shareholders. The venue, tour and festival promoter had announced that founder Vince Power had sold his 35% stake in the company and was stepping down as executive chairman.
A subsequent share deal was to leave internet entrepreneur Richard Clingen, whose company Media Internet Telecom is a partner on Mean Fiddler's download platform, as the largest shareholder and he was to become the new chairman. Power was to stay on in a non-executive role overseeing the company's festival work.
However that all changed yesterday after certain Mean Fiddler shareholders raised objections to the deal. Among those said to be unhappy was rival promoter Denis Desmond of Irish company MCD who acquired a stake in Mean Fiddler last year. Having stepped in to stop the Clingen deal speculation is now rife that Desmond will look to increase his stake in the company, however yesterday he told reporters: "I'm not saying we won't increase our stake. I'm just saying we have no plans to. The Mean Fiddler has a lot of potential, particularly in the UK market."
The change of direction means Powers will now stay on as chairman, while the company will look to appoint a new chief executive. Although Powers is likely to still want to sell some or all of his stake in the company, with the Mean Fiddler share price down 12.5p after yesterday's events any sale is not likely to happen straight away.