Patterico's Pontifications

1/18/2009

New York Times Considers Cash Infusion from Mexican Investor

Filed under: International — DRJ @ 12:44 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The New York Times is reportedly looking for a financial bailout from one of its investors, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim:

“The 68-year-old telecommunications tycoon [Carlos Slim] is said to be discussing a large purchase of preferred shares. The talks are ongoing and may fall apart, as they probably would need the consent of the Sulzberger family, including publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who control the media powerhouse through its ownership of preferred shares.

The preferred shares under discussion would carry no voting rights, but pay a dividend, according to the report. His current stake puts Slim among the largest non-Sulzberger owners of the Times.

The Times is under the gun to raise cash as a $400 million credit line expires in May. The recession has squeezed the paper, which reported a 21 percent drop in ad revenue in November.”

Slim is listed as the world’s second-richest person, just slightly behind Warren Buffet.

— DRJ

22 Responses to “New York Times Considers Cash Infusion from Mexican Investor”

  1. For Slim, fattening up his stake in the Times would expand his already sizeable holdings.

    Nothing in the article supports this.

    happyfeet (4eacbc)

  2. Hilarious!

    Hey, maybe Slim got so rich because he’s a capitalist. It might be interesting to see a non-leftish LAT!

    Patricia (89cb84)

  3. A corrupt crony capitalst like Slim and the NYT? Sounds like they’re made for each other. The Times already parrots Slims preferred politcal views so no change needed there.

    Subotai (a75ff6)

  4. “It might be interesting to see a non-leftish LAT!”

    NYT. Not if this guy has his way.

    Subotai (a75ff6)

  5. Talk about a risky investment …

    Evil Pundit (843b74)

  6. How embarrassing! Isn’t Slim Catholic and he didn’t go to any of the right schools?

    daleyrocks (5d22c0)

  7. Evil Pundit,

    It’s what I might call step 1 in a redistribution of Slim’s wealth.

    Lurker (710dbc)

  8. A smart dog trainer never bites the hand that feeds them.

    Two Dogs (5d1e74)

  9. The preferred shares under discussion would carry no voting rights, but pay a dividend, according to the report

    Dividends are paid by profitable companies. Why on earth would you buy non-voting shares of an dying concern?

    Pablo (99243e)

  10. Pablo,

    I am pretty sure Carlos will find a way to make mucho dinero on this one too.

    Carlos Slim no cree en nadie y nada. He is no NYT acolyte looking for cocktail party approval.

    Da'Shiznit (df1dcc)

  11. Oh right, NYT. I lost my head for a second, hoping the LAT was going down.

    Patricia (89cb84)

  12. Comment by Patricia — 1/18/2009 @ 3:58 pm

    Soon enough, Patricia, soon enough.

    Dana (137151)

  13. Because of financial transactions over the past 10 years — mainly the buying out of Times Mirror by the Tribune Co — the LA Times is guaranteed to fall apart well before the NY Times does.

    Beyond that, if more of America over the next several decades begins to resemble much of Mexico — demographically, socially and politically — than it is symbolically quite appropriate that one of its more well-known media entities (albeit a foolishly leftwing one) should have a good portion of its ownership switched to a Mexican magnate.

    Mark (411533)

  14. This Mexican billionaire and the Los Angeles Times would be a match made in heaven. Tu ciudad, Tu Equipo!

    Official Internet Data Office (c048e2)

  15. It’s already really kinda hard to tell Los Angeles and Mexico City apart.

    happyfeet (4eacbc)

  16. New York Treason Slimes going bankrupt = priceless!

    J. Raymond Wright (e8d0ca)

  17. Why isn’t the NYT demanding he invest in Mexico to create Mexican jobs that provide health care?

    Perfect Sense (9d1b08)

  18. The NYT owners live in a cloud world of dreams. This sentence captures the problem perfectly:

    “The talks are ongoing and may fall apart, as they probably would need the consent of the Sulzberger family, including publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who control the media powerhouse.”

    Ummm, hey Sulzberger, we’re talking about a life-saving bailout of a failed company here. The Sulzbergers control the business only in the sense they get to decide if it should be in liquidation. The NYT Company itself is a “media powerhouse” only in the sense that it once was a great paper. Now, it’s just a vomit inducing propagandist for the Democrat party, dedicated to the proposition that a free press is soooo yesterday! Oh yeah, it’s nearly a bankrupt vomit rag too!

    It’s motto once was “All the News Fit To Print”. Now, it’s “Print the press release!” (If it’s from the DNC, that is). The main editorial goal might once have been to expose government corruption and rascally politicians, but now it is only to “print any and all national secrets one can uncover!” And, where once the newspapers distrusted the private agendas of anonymous sources, now the only scruple is “don’t forget to help all the CIA apparatchiks overthrow any and all policies of the elected government of the U.S.!”

    Don’t buy the NYT, the LAT or the Wapo. Make these creeps learn to serve us news unvarnished and without their so-called “analysis” coloring every sentence! Make David McCumber wish he’d never uttered those disgusting words,

    “I understand that people have a hard time with the concept that we get to decide what is news and what isn’t, and what is fair and what isn’t.”

    Help revive a free press in America! Make these elitist twerps, flashing the inherited wealth for which they did not work, and their over-blown imitation “journalistic ethics” go back to real jobs, like the rest of us people they used to like to sneer at so frequently, the benighted Americans!

    I will celebrate their destruction as a good day for America.

    MTF (a04f28)

  19. “The 68-year-old telecommunications tycoon [Carlos Slim] is said to be discussing a large purchase of preferred shares. The talks are ongoing and may fall apart, as they probably would need the consent of the Sulzberger family, including publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who control the media powerhouse through its ownership of preferred shares.

    The preferred shares under discussion would carry no voting rights, but pay a dividend, according to the report. His current stake puts Slim among the largest non-Sulzberger owners of the Times.

    The Times is under the gun to raise cash as a $400 million credit line expires in May. The recession has squeezed the paper, which reported a 21 percent drop in ad revenue in November.”

    Maybe it’s me – who would want to put their money in a business that is going in the tank by buying preferred stock, but having no voting rights? Wouldn’t you want to have some say in how the money you invested is being used? The Times, like the majority of the MSSM (Main Stream Socialist Media)sold its soul to the Devil along time ago, and it’s time for them to pay.

    fmfnavydoc (59b1f9)

  20. So, non-voting “dividends” on a dying company?

    What is Mr. Slim supposed to get out of this, liberal brownie points?

    Techie (6b5d8d)

  21. Rupert Murdoch has been poaching high end NYT advertisers to the WSJ. Subscribers pay a small portion of a publisher’s cost and their numbers are only important it convincing ad buyers who they might reach. With ad revenue down (again) by 21%, the Grey Lady’s future is bleak. The Ochs and Sulzberger families have been keeping the newspaper afloat just to give Arthur (Pinch) a job.

    For anyone who has been watching NTY stock knows, it’s not worth much with falling profits and Ochs Sulzberger families retaining all control. If Slim is smart, he will get Pinch to put up the title to his building as a hedge against disaster (unless as I suspect, it’s already overleveraged).

    My money, however, is on Murdoch. When Sulzberger sells the paper, he will buy it. Murdoch, unlike Pinch, knows how to make News sell. Look at the numbers at Fox, the NYPost and WSJ. He will sell the building, fire half of the staff and lease a facility. If I were the buyer, I would keep About.com and shut down the rest.

    arch (84c50a)

  22. It’s easy to make a billion dollars in the newspaper biz. Start with 2 billion…

    ras (20bd5b)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0767 secs.