KERRY Stokes claimed it wasn't personal. He went out of his way to say so, in fact, in his impassioned spiel aimed at convincing WAN shareholders to side with him.
But it was obvious by the time the meeting was under way that things had become very personal on all sides. And by the time Stokes left the meeting, his personal disappointment was all too clear.
It was, after all, never just business. It was about a self-made man, something of an outsider, in battle with one of the best-connected company boards in Perth. And it was about a ubiquitous and long-running newspaper that remains a vital force in WA despite heavy criticisms of it.
About 600 shareholders sat through 2½ hours of at times heated debate and accusations - applauding one side, and then the other, and laughing nervously at the occasional attempted joke.
Dozens got up to speak. "You are looking down the barrel," one shareholder said to the directors. "I cannot believe that a group of grown adults cannot sort this out," said another.
"They have never run a business, they have never had their fingernails dirty and they have never been in a position where they have had to deliver something," Stokes said of the WAN board.
At one point, Stokes became embroiled in a heated back-and-forth argument with shareholder activist Stephen Mayne, with Stokes accusing the board candidate of defaming him over accusations of editorial interference.
During the course of the meeting the paper and its editor was attacked; Channel Seven was targeted, and its programs derided as "crap".
Shareholder and former WAN board member Bert Reuter likened it to World War II and Churchill and Hitler (in a light moment Stokes asked if he could be Churchill. As did Erich Fraunschiel).
Stokes' self-deprecating reference to himself as "ugly, big and fearful" struck a chord (but his subsequent rugby reference fell flat in this AFL-crazy state).
WAN is not just a company, and The West is not just a paper.
This, indeed, has been part of Stokes' pitch - that as a proud West Australian, he wants to see the company and the paper thrive, and not just so that it can provide a bigger dividend.
There is only a handful of big-listed industrial stocks in WA - Wesfarmers is one, and WAN is another.
Their shares are loyally held in many small WA portfolios - a combination of parochialism and savvy investment in a state that has redefined the word "boom".
These people accounted for a big proportion of yesterday's attendees, along with more than a few West staff members, past and present.
So it was always going to be personal, in one way or another.
When it was all over, Peter Mansell admitted it had been a "long and difficult process", and Stokes said that he felt disappointed and a little surprised by the result.
So the two main adversaries remain in something of a limbo. Mansell has been given something far less than a show of support. And Stokes is left to question why he fell so short after so much effort.
A heavy personal blow on both sides.
Ruth Williams is a former employee of The West Australian.
