Mansell said the issue of control was important as the ability of shareholders to ""sell"" control of WAN to a bidder has value and based on market precedent, that value is potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.

""As an example, if you applied a typical 30% control premium to WAN''s current market value that control is worth in the order of $3 to $3.50 per share. Whether or not WAN shareholders will benefit from the value of control is also very important in the context of Stokes'' history with Seven Network,"" he said.

WAN shareholders would decide on the Seven''s request to remove all four of the publisher''s non-executive directors, including Mansell through a vote in April 23.

With a 19.4% stake in WAN, Seven also wants its non-executive director Peter Gammell to join Stokes on the board.

""Two seats on a five person independent board does not constitute control,"" it said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange.

Seven also rejected claims by WAN that potential for conflicts of interest would arise if Seven had directors on WAN''s board. It claimed that the two companies did not compete because one sells newspapers and other broadcasts television programs.

WAN reduced its interim dividend by 30% last month after it reported a 21% dip in first half profit.

WAN shares closed down 2.9% and Seven stock lost 1.3%.