I'm a little surprised that nobody has commented on Granite Broadcasting's possible default on June 1st.
The parent company of Channel 7 in Buffalo issued the following statement last Tuesday:
"The proceeds from the sales of our stations in San Francisco and Detroit were to be reinvested in stations that fit our strategy, and to provide necessary working capital. To that end, we had identified several attractive stations, including our previously announced proposed purchase of the CBS affiliate serving Binghamton, NY.
"However, the unexpected and damaging decision by The WB Network to cease operations in September 2006 has made the sales of those stations on an acceptable basis much less certain at the current time. While we continue to evaluate recent proposals for the sales of these stations, the funds we need for our business and for strategic acquisition of stations such as Binghamton may come from other sources, if available. Absent asset sales or changes to our capital structure, we will not have enough cash to make our interest payment on June 1, 2006.
"In that regard, we have engaged the services of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin as our financial advisor to assist the Company in the evaluation of strategic options and to advise us on available financing and capital restructuring alternatives. We will provide additional detail on this process as appropriate."
The whole statement is available here.
The parent company of Channel 7 in Buffalo issued the following statement last Tuesday:
"The proceeds from the sales of our stations in San Francisco and Detroit were to be reinvested in stations that fit our strategy, and to provide necessary working capital. To that end, we had identified several attractive stations, including our previously announced proposed purchase of the CBS affiliate serving Binghamton, NY.
"However, the unexpected and damaging decision by The WB Network to cease operations in September 2006 has made the sales of those stations on an acceptable basis much less certain at the current time. While we continue to evaluate recent proposals for the sales of these stations, the funds we need for our business and for strategic acquisition of stations such as Binghamton may come from other sources, if available. Absent asset sales or changes to our capital structure, we will not have enough cash to make our interest payment on June 1, 2006.
"In that regard, we have engaged the services of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin as our financial advisor to assist the Company in the evaluation of strategic options and to advise us on available financing and capital restructuring alternatives. We will provide additional detail on this process as appropriate."
The whole statement is available here.
