Bloomberg.com: News: Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction, sending the stock to its lowest in more than 10 years.
The person declined to be identified because Morgan Stanley hasn’t made the sale public yet. Traders with knowledge of the transaction said Merrill Lynch & Co. sold New York Times stock worth $183 million in a block trade.
As the article notes, when this sale goes public, there is gonna be a lot of institutional investers who are gonna dump their shares, too.
It’s gonna be a bloodbath.
Hypothetical: If the Times were to disappear from the face of the earth, oh, let’s say, year-end, what do YOU imagine would replace it?
I can’t answer that, because the premise is too ridiculous. If the stock gets slaughtered, the Sulzberger/Ochs family will take the paper private.
It’s too damn strong a brand to disappear. Right now I’d imagine there are more than a few equity groups thinking about ways for making a play to take it over.
“It’s too damn strong a brand to disappear.”
Perhaps, but as the actual newspaper it is now?
Pinch let the editorial bent of the paper get out of hand by his personal politics; that’s a big reason the Morgan Stanley guy wanted the Pinch to give up one of his management positions (chairman/publisher) and the shareholders be allowed to pick more members of the company board (the family picks nine of 12).
Morgan Stanley believed the paper savable if Pinch was reigned in and the board wasn’t such a closed shop; the family refused and Morgan said “fine, fuck you.”
The problem is Pinch, not the paper. He’s the one who has been behind the damage to the brand.
“the family refused and Morgan said “fine, fuck you.””
I’m not sure I agree with your beef against the editorial biases of the paper itself, but MS can scarcely be blamed for this….they are only fulfilling their obligations.
Interesting perspective. I don’t know as much about these particular internecine machinations as I probably should…
The bottom line: the family decided Pinch could never be fired, removed, or otherwise be stopped from running the joint unless a lightning bolt hit him in the head.
None of the rest of the family has anything to do with the paper other than collecting dividend checks. Pinch is killing them; sooner or later, it’s gonna hit them ALL in their trust money. For some reason I cannot fathom, they allow him to keep on burying their bankrolls.
Think of this: “I’m an old line shareholder, from the Ochs family; maybe some invest guy running a trust controlling the public shares should have a say in what we do?”
Answer: “Fuck you.”
“MY FAMILY is getting screwed because this little Pinch fucker TOTALLY MISSED the Internet (see:”TimesSelect). My money is going down a shithole because he built a building he can’t even fill.
“He’s killing me.”
See above answer.