Lachlan Murdoch, son of media giant Rupert Murdoch, and Australia's richest man and gaming heir, James Packer, offered to buy Consolidated Media Holdings for AU$3.3 billion (US$2.9 billion) Monday.

This is the second major effort the two rival media empires (Murdoch's News Corporation and the Packer-backed Consolidated Media) have made to join forces, after both backed telecommunications company One.Tel, which closed in 2001, Reuters reported Monday.

The offer represents a 24.4 percent premium to the last traded price of Consolidated Media, and has been given the nod by Packer-backed Consolidated Press Holdings, the biggest shareholder of Consolidated Media, according to Reuters.

Packer split the ASX-listed Publishing and Broadcasting, of which he owned 38 percent, less than two months ago. He turned them into separate entities for media and gaming, the National Business Review reported Monday.

Consolidated Media's price per share would be a fixed cash amount of AU$4.06, plus a variable amount based on the average price of jobs Web site ASX-listed Seek, 27 percent of which is owned by Consolidated Media, according to the Business Review.