Analyst Francois Godard says that after the setbacks, Bertelsmann will "take a deep breath and come back with an action plan." One cannot criticize Thomas Rabe for remaining stuck in the past. "RTL has thought ahead more than most other private broadcasters in Europe when it comes to digital challenges ." Such an approach is necessary in a disruptive market.

This week it sold its Newbury HQ and will lease back part of the campus. But as Karen Egan, head of mobile at Enders Analysis, points out: 'Vodafone is a bit of a tanker – it will take some time to turn around.'

Egan says: 'Other operators like Orange and 02 seem hungrier.'

She added that anyone backing Vodafone should be ready for another share price reverse, if the new CEO makes a debut statement, 'kitchen-sinking' all the company's shortcomings. But she is more sanguine about the dividend, saying: 'It may seem to some the sort of dividend that could be cut. But in my view it is sustainable as the big calls on Vodafone's cash are past.'

“The justification for the transaction was paper thin but it had the merit of forming a long-term financial umbrella over publications that are vulnerable,” said Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis and a longtime Murdoch watcher.

“Protecting the future of titles of great sentimental and political value might have been a motivation shared by few of those involved. Rupert Murdoch did not have convincing arguments for value add. Breaking up the News Corp stable is likely to release more value for shareholders in due course. We are always sympathetic to protecting plurality but it isn’t an argument the stock market has any time for.”

Jamie MacEwan, senior media analyst at Enders, explained that TikTok execs’ use of heating (which is boosting videos into users’ “For You” pages to achieve a more ideal number of views), confirms the TikTok team’s awareness of some of the drawbacks of having a very aggressive personalization engine — its lauded special algorithm — and so this is a way for them to account for those drawbacks in some way.