It isn't a big step from litigation funding to baby food - not if you're a struggling ASX-listed litigator.

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"Do we look like boring people? I think we do," said Rio Tinto boss Jean-Sebastien Jacques in reply to an analyst who pointed out that his predecessor, Sam Walsh, took great pride in making Rio Tinto boring.

Ardent Leisure is not the only company being affected by the tragic deaths at its Dreamworld theme park last month, with neighbouring Movie World and Sea World seeing visitor numbers falling.

There may finally be a glimmer of light for our battling billionaire James Packer.

• CBD

"We are now in our ninth year in a row of budget deficit," Peter Costello grumbled to the ABC just a few weeks ago. But he is happy to add to the deficit if it benefits the Nine Network.

The Australian Shareholders' Association has called for retail billionaire Gerry Harvey to be replaced as Harvey Norman chairman.

• CBD

Retail billionaire Gerry ''Trump'' Harvey has a message for the foreign short seller he blames for the "hearsay and rumours" that have recently plagued the company: "Piss off!"

The world is going a little crazy, and we're not just talking about Brexit and Trump.

Treasury Wine shares soared on Thursday - and not just because its massive US business is expected to bloom as the Trump-trodden elites drown their sorrows.

Everbody was caught with their pants down when it came to Donald Trump's unexpected election victory, including the bookies, which are paying dearly for their collective misjudgement.

It isn't often you get a successful chief executive regretting the announcement of their own retirement. But it was a rather costly announcement for Aristocrat Leisure boss, Jamie Ronald Odell.

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With the biggest reality TV event of the year playing out before us with the US Election, some of Australia's biggest corporations appear to be using the opportunity to "take out the trash".

AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick was smacked with a record protest vote by Pacific Current investors. Now they want to bench him.

Former burger flipper Peter "Maccas" Bush knows how to deliver on the fast food front, so it should be no surprise that the revised IPO of the Ingham chicken processing business was not the disaster everyone had been predicting.

Property developer and rev head, Brian Boyd, finally won over fellow investors with his latest attempt to privatise his ASX-listed vehicle, Payce Consolidated.

When somebody absconds with company funds, you expect the loot to end up in a Swiss bank account, but that was not the case with Ashley Howard.

Is Australia's richest female CEO, Fone Zone founder Maxine Horne, getting a bit too rich for the likes of her business partner, Telstra?

Despite devoting the best part of two decades, and a billion dollars, to winning the Melbourne Cup Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum still couldn't crack the big race.

Having a hard time making your Melbourne Cup pick? Maybe you need a bit of corporate knowledge to give you that winning edge.

• CBD

ANZ boss, Shayne Elliott, is trying to dismantle the Asian legacy of his predecessor with as little fanfare as possible.

• COMMENT

William Hill's local operation – run by the very popular Tom Waterhouse – lost £72.1 million last year. That equated to a loss of $144 million in local currency, according to the accounts of its subsidiary William Hill Holdings Pty Ltd.

Donating her controversial bonus to the families affected by the Dreamworld tragedy, Ardent Leisure boss Deborah Thomas now effectively earned less than half of what her predecessor made last financial year. The kicker is, he didn't work a single day.

The award for the biggest punch-up of the AFL off season might just go to its chairman, Carlton legend Mike Fitzpatrick.

The iconic flying kangaroo that has adorned Qantas planes for more than 70 years lost its wings in a 1984 redesign.

Pokie legend Len Ainsworth has given his fellow Ainsworth Game Technology (AGI) investors a lesson in how to play the old one-armed bandits.

It was meant to be the magic formula for Bega Cheese investors - team up with China darling, Blackmores, in the infant formula market and watch the money roll in.

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Roger Sexton has bidden farewell to the listed wealth management concern by trumpeting the group's aim "to positively contribute to the lives of individuals and their communities".

Network Ten CEO Paul Anderson probably wished he were anywhere else yesterday as the market sold off his company's shares in the wake of a dismal quarterly update.

• CBD

Treasury secretary John Fraser is a busy man. Very busy. As he reminded Senate estimates a few times on Wednesday.