FISHER'S ON THE BLOCK

[searadiofreak]

This whole "we want control" shareholder bull%%%t thing with Fisher is getting VERY old for me. Enough that I seriously am thinking about going to June shareholder meeting with discount coupons for "Babies R Us" to hand out to Lorber and the FrontFour crew....if they are going to ACT like babies let them dress like one (at a sale price).

Where I once cared VERY deeply about locally owned broadcast companies that really had it together, I'm tired of all these Wall Street types or ignorant exectutives (often those two are very tightly coupled) coming in and urinating all over very decent media operations and liquidating what's left for their momentary portfolio orgasm.

LBB, great post. And I know you are very familiar with the situation there.

Any new owner will have to decide what they want to keep and what is disposable. That, unfortunately, is the reality of today's media world. Possible new local owners don't exist, really. So the best we can hope for is a company that realizes that local still works in Seattle, wherever they may have their headquarters. Belo and Cox, for the most part, still do this. For KOMO/KATU to succeed, they need an owner who realizes that local people need to run these outlets for them to succeed.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

What frustrates me about FrontFour is they are REAL ESTATE ... not communications. Their primary interest was Plaza real estate, which has already been sold. So at this point there is no interest in the communications operations other than LIQUIDATE IT so their portfolio is better off. NOTHING to do with community coverage, presence, viable buyer ... ANY of that. Just "put the cash back in my account ASAP and if you don't, we will find board members who WILL.". Tragic. At least when Bullitt empire was liquidated, they shopped very carefully for a good caretaker.

 

[bossbill]

This can happen to any business entity desiring more rapid growth than internal funding will allow. If you borrow money, the lender may end up owning you if the economy turns. If you bring in outside equity, you'll likely find assets being sold.

A major broadcast manufacturer - Harris Broadcast - was acquired recently by the same equity firm that bought the pulp mill in Grays Harbor. The type of business matters not. All that matters is that the business can be improved and sold for a profit, or squeezed dry and sold off.