The New York Times (NYT) reportedly received a bid last month of over $100M for the Boston Globe...

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davidingeorgia Comments (2713)
 
It would be nice to see someone of a non-flaming-lefty perspective own a major newspaper in this country again, but I guess the moderates/conservatives who have the resources to snag one would rather waste their money by giving it to some political action committee run by the likes of Karl Rove to make loads of expensive TV ads that no one watches.
24 Feb, 06:29 AM Reply Like

kmi Comments (3847)
 
I suppose it's likely the rabidly right either can't read or can't afford the newspaper, so there is no market demand for such a product.
24 Feb, 08:12 AM Reply Like

Tschurin Comments (265)
 
I thought companies sold subsidiaries all the time without putting them up for bid. Is that true and if so, why don't they worry about getting sued by shareholders? After all, it isn't as if the Globe is a major part of the NYT company's worth.
24 Feb, 08:21 AM Reply Like

Uncle Pie Comments (1646)
 
Reality check: The New York Times paid $1.1 Billion to the Taylor family for the Boston Globe in 1993. So they are looking at a loss of over 90%, not counting all the money they invested in the Globe while they owned it. I don't know whether or not the Globe earned a profit for the New York Times Company in any of the years they owned it. Given the value destruction, probably not. Buyers beware!
24 Feb, 08:50 AM Reply Like

Tschurin Comments (265)
 
I’m not sure whose reality you are checking, but just to clarify, I said that the Globe is [present tense] not a major part of NYT’s net worth. Whether it used to be, and whether the purchase was a bad mistake, are different matters.
24 Feb, 01:28 PM Reply Like

Uncle Pie Comments (1646)
 
I see the NYT has a market cap of $1.36 billion (148 million shares @ $9.18/share) and debt of $775 million. So if they sold the Globe for $100 million and applied all of the proceeds to debt reduction, the debt would be reduced about 13%. Or they could repurchase about 11 million shares and reduce the share count by about 7.4%. Not a lot.

As to whether the purchase was a "bad mistake" or not, the numbers speak for themselves. Purchased for $1.1 Billion in 1993, worth about $100 million today.
24 Feb, 03:02 PM Reply Like