2023 was not your average stroll in the corporate-park for Australian businesses. On the share market, we saw the ASX200 jump more than 9%, but it was the acquisitions, legal actions and leadership changes that really rocked the major companies.

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These unexpected stories not only influenced the market but will also shape the future of some of Australia's most iconic brands for many years to come.

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1. Qantas hits turbulence so strap on your seatbelts

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Qantas Airways, usually soaring through skies, hit some major turbulence on the ground. After reporting a whopping $2.47 billion in profit for FY23, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took Qantas to court for allegedly selling tickets for 8,000 flights that had already been cancelled. And following this allegation, the CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce stepped down from his role as CEO earlier than expected.

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2. Optus has a signal of change

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We also saw another high-profile face a scandal and step step down too. Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigned after a nationwide outage that left nearly 10 million Australians without connection - not even 000 worked! As an apology, Optus offered affected customers 200 gigabytes in free data… which nobody actually needed or wanted. And this comes off the back of a major cyberattack last year that saw 9.8 million Optus customers’ data compromised. It hasn’t been a good 24 months for Optus.

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3. 7-Eleven Australia hands over the Slurpee

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The year saw the iconic 7-Eleven stores in Australia sold to their Japanese parent company for a whopping $1.7 billion. The two families that owned 7-Eleven Australia decided it was the "right time" to pass over the Slurpee-reign to ensure the future growth and success of the brand. The global 7-Eleven company, Seven & I Holdings, plans to ramp up the number of stores and focus on munchies ahead of petrol.

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4. No more tax tricks for PwC

A partner from PwC Australia was found to have led a major tax advice scandal. PwC partner Peter Collins was alleged to have provided advice to the Federal government on tax laws that would target big tech companies. But he then shared that confidential government tax info with some of the tech companies to avoid the new tax laws. Talk about batting for both teams. This scandal led to a major parliamentary inquiry and resulted in PwC’s government team selling to private equity investor Allegro Funds for just  $1. The refreshed company was renamed Scyne Advisory.

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5. Chemist Warehouse has a new prescription for success

After many years of will-they-won’t-they-list, Chemist Warehouse is dispensing a new kind of pill - its own ASX listing. After swallowing up Sigma Healthcare in a reverse takeover, they’re now preparing for their share market debut. It’s expected that the merged Chemist Warehouse/Sigma company will be valued at more than $8 billion. That’s a whole lot of money for new perfumes and prescriptions.

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From corporate sales and legal challenges to leadership changes, 2023 was a year of major business events in Australia. And with more confidence in the share market, it seems like 2024 will be even juicier.

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Have we missed any of the biggest stories of the year? Let us know in the comments!