Media Meltdown Is Even Worse Than Markets

What, on earth, has happened to the media companies’ stocks and market caps?

In early summer 2007, we looked at media companies to determine who was the king of digital media and then used the multiples and figures from each of the publicly traded companies to forecast the value of NBC…

Yesterday Marketwatch ran a piece on how much media stocks have fallen off their highs.  You can’t blame them for not trying, though.

I decided to compare values to see what has happened in the past 18 months and folks, it’s a disaster:

Comments

[Philly Jim:]

New medi(ums). The internet is relatively new and has only recently become the new choice/medium for new generations to get their entertainment, news, and communicate with one another through. The "media" giants of the past are just that, giants of the past. The evolution of media will be boutique and once the new government gets in and liberalizes the airwaves and opens-up the doors of competition, we will see a slew of small start-up venues catering to specific class genres in society, e.g. hipsters, hiphop, old foggies, techies, etc... Advertising will be very centric rather than simply eccentric. Unless of course the genius of the Bush admin steps in to bail them out too. What the hell ever happened to the free market capitalism modo of the republican party? Failures are failures and should be left to the wind while new companies form off new ideas for new generations. The problem with the companies of older generations is that they are all being run by older people who are out-of-touch with the needs of young consumers. The perfect example would be Rick Wagoner of GM.

2008 Oct 11 02:36 PM

[Prudent Man...:]

Markets & Obama's Socialism

At the end of 2006, we saw a real estate bubble burst. This affected credit and credibility for much of 2007 and, of course the stock market. It is understandable that any company that had business dealings with real estate and real estate credit would be in trouble as the Administration realized in late 2007. What no one, and I mean no one, understood the extent of the damage caused by derivatives and off-balance sheet debt, etc. I know quite a lot about this as I have been an investment professional for close to fifty years.

The past several weeks the situation much different and it has reach irrational. and maybe not, reasoning as wealth destruction accelerates around the world. There are investable and lendable funds available but no one wants to take the risk of investing when the leading candidate in the presidential elections wants to raise taxes on capital gains and dividends. When the leading candidate in the presidential election wants to institute socialized medicine and the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, those that have nothing to do with real estate, are plunging to twenty year lows. Companies that have absolutely nothing to do with real estate and debt, in fact these companies are debt free themselves, are plunging because the leading candidate for the presidency of the Unitized States is a Socialist.

The magnitude of the market plunge the last several weeks has a direct correlation with Obama's strength in the polls. People want to hide their money from the government. I know I do. The Obama Administration will, admittedly, redistribute the wealth while McCain is silent. The media is silent. The Wall Street Journal is silent. Those who don't understand that the greatest destruction of wealth the world has ever seen is taking place in front of their eyes while a Socialist is seizing power, a power that will adversely affect the wealth and culture of this great nation.

A Socialist, well bred for this job by powerful forces in and outside of this country, will destroy the country that many of us have fought and worked so hard to protect. Do the left-wing journalist, academics and activists actually believe that they and the country will be better under Socialism? If they are that naive they should study what the demise of their fellow travelers was when Marx, Engels and Stalin ruled the Soviet Union. The wealth was distributed to the politically powerful statists and freedom of the press, education and national wealth was destroyed. Individual incentive and productivity plunged and, finally, the country became one large gulag. If you think it cannot happen here, you are in denial. This has been planned for decades and the powers to be, and Obama is just a pawn, will get what we let them take by, ironically, democracy.

Where is the anger?

2008 Oct 11 04:41 PM

[Little G:]

I think you confuse socialism and communism. Most of Europe has fairly socialist govs, same as australia and new zealand where i live.
Sharing wealth in the sense of protecting all people by making education and health a right, not a privilege is the main difference between our successful soceties and yours. the usa is the richist but as a consequence of not caring about each other, you have the highest crime rates, esp violent, and people having their lives destroyed because they get sick.
Your current system has been torn apart due to greed and corruption, it is funny how the us gov always talks about other regimes as corrupt.
You want things to work, its easy, just give a shit about your neighboor in good times and bad and life is good. Don't, and enjoy high crime, poor health and poor levels of education.

2008 Oct 12 01:26 AM

[steadfast:]

New Zealand? Now there is an advanced culture. Care for one another? A friend of mine and part time resident had to leave the country and travel to the US for Cancer treatment due to your abismal health care system. Upon trying to return they were unwelcome due to the fact their financial status after being ill was not up to your countries desired level....thats true public concern! What is your tax rate for that superb health system? 48%? And most citizens have to have additional health insurance to avoid the hack doctors. I can see why your so proud of your caring country?

2008 Oct 13 01:16 AM

[PeteK:]

Philly jim, you are right on the button. Another thing is that these media, all of them, became so bias and one-sided and make people wonder if they are brain-washing us. They treat us like little ignorant kids. They have no respect of our government and our leaders, tear anyone down as they see fit. They must fail, or this country will.
They only thing we can do is to boycott those business who keep giving them money for ads and other programs.

2008 Oct 13 03:20 AM

[PeteK:]

PrudentMan,
You are making a very good point there.
That's why even Hillary Clinton got beaten so badly.
There is a bigger force out there that we can't see.
Keep in faith, the American people are not dummies.

2008 Oct 13 03:25 AM