Insider trading charges could derail Cuban's bid for Cubs (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Chicago Tribune ^ | November 17, 2008 | Ameet Sachdev

[abb]

Insider-trading charges brought Monday against Mark Cuban, an Internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, could weaken his chances of buying the Chicago Cubs.

There was already some doubt whether other baseball owners would welcome the loud and brash self-made billionaire into their fraternity if he had the highest bid. Now, they have something to point to to deny him entry, said a sports economist familiar with baseball ownership decisions.

"The charges give the commissioner's office another pretext for turning him down," said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College.

Robert DuPuy, president of Major League Baseball, declined to comment.

If the charges effectively eliminate Cuban from Cubs auction, his absence would be the latest setback for the sales process that began when Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell reached a deal to acquire team owner Tribune Co., the media conglomerate, in April 2007.

Since then, a declining economy and tight credit markets have raised questions about whether Zell can complete a transaction once valued at more than $1 billion. Cuban's absence would further alter the dynamics of the auction, as other bidders were afraid he would try to win the team and Wrigley Field at any cost. "Mark was the wild card," said a person close to one of the bidders who asked to remain anonymous because the sales process is ongoing. "No one knew what he was going to do."

Other bidders include the Ricketts family, a founder of online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., and Chicago real estate investor Hersch Klaff.

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[abb]

Tribune Co. (LA Times, Orlando Sentinel) is not long for this world.

[abb]

ping

[Da Coyote]

In order to avoid waste of time and effort, first ask the question: Is he a democrat?

If yes, fogetttabowdit.
If no, prosecute.

Easy, wasn’t it?

Remember, we’re dealing with an upcoming Obamaloon and associated Clinton criminal cabinet here.

[imahawk]

I love happy endings in both accounts.

[My Favorite Headache]

Huge Democrat and even financed a movie that smeared U.S. soldiers as murdering rapists.

Mark Cuban is getting karma...big time. F-CK him. I hope he burns in hell.

[abb]

The inside story here is how desperately Sam Zell (owner of Tribune Co. - LA Times, etc) needs to raise cash to meet an upcoming mortgage payment. He HAS to sell the Cubs to raise cash.

Otherwise, Tribune Co. - and it’s newspapers - just fade away...

[dilvish]

It had been pretty clear from various noisemakers inside MLB that there was no way the owners would approve letting Cuban in their club anyway. He’s too much a boat rocker, upsets the delicate balance of power.

[abb]

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/for-editors-new-software-tool-and.html
For editors, new software tool — and Connell, too?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/92600a68-b565-11dd-ab71-0000779fd18c.html
Independent to shed quarter of journalists

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/magazines-newspapers/e3i39f08ab5c0c81e8df0aaf6a41579701e
Forbes Cuts 43 in Sales and Marketing Mash Up

http://www.nypost.com/seven/11182008/business/layoffs_at_tv_guide__forbes_139301.htm
LAYOFFS AT TV GUIDE, FORBES

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-univision18-2008nov18,0,7094033.story

Univision predicts lean times ahead
The Spanish-language broadcaster posts a $2.9-billion third-quarter loss after writing down assets.

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003892437
‘Erie Times-News’ Looks to Buy Out 25 Staffers

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008403633_crosscut18.html
Online news site Crosscut poised to switch to nonprofit

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081117/FREE/811179928/1084
NBC signs lease for 100,000 square feet
The deal at 75 Rockefeller Plaza is expected to be short term until NBC Universal can consolidate most of its operations in a still undetermined site.

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2008/11/17/daily12.html
D Magazine cuts staff, closes three papers

http://www.worldscreen.com/newscurrent.php?filename=amd11178.htm
AMD, YouGov Release European Internet, Content Survey

http://www.niemanlab.org/2008/11/the-newspaper-summit-lots-of-lines-all-going-the-wrong-way/
The newspaper summit: Lots of lines, all going the wrong way

[Boiling Pots]

Right, and if Cuban should somehow offer, let’s say, $100 million more than the other bidders, how are they going to deny Zell the right to sell him the team?

Answer is, they probably can’t and won’t.

But, I doubt now Cuban can be a serious bidder considering his legal woes.

[abb]

http://www.observer.com/2008/media/times-gerry-marzorati-play-no-options-make-it-viable Times' Gerry Marzorati on Play: No Options to 'Make it Viable' http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/11/18/number-crunch-downsizing-at-the-newsweeklies Number Crunch: Downsizing at the Newsweeklies http://www.cjr.org/feature/overload_1.php?page=all Overload! Journalism’s battle for relevance in an 
age of too much information http://bottomlinecom.com/currentnews/kcstarinbigtrouble.html KC STAR MAY DROP 'MONEY' AND 'TRAVEL' SECTIONS; CIRCUIT CITY CLOSING IS DEVASTATING

[abb]

Can’t lay my hands on it right now, but I saw a story the other day which said that 3/4 of the existing owners had to agree on the prospective buyer. Definitely a “Good Ole Boy Network.”

[Boiling Pots]

Right, and they would not deny (imo) one owner a much better deal than he would get otherwise.

The value of these franchises lies in the marketable title.

When it comes time for them to sell, they want to be able to sell to the highest bidder too.

That being said, it’s probably all moot, Cuban has bigger problems now. He could face jail time.

[Hot Tabasco]

In order to avoid waste of time and effort, first ask the question: Is he a democrat?

He funded the recent box office trash "Redacted".......

That should answer any questions you might have of this ahole.......

[Joe Boucher]

Well if you are selling an inferior product you deserve to go down the toilet.

[abb]

Yes. He’s got troubles. But what I want to see is the Tribune’s newspapers turned to ash.

LA Times
Chicago Tribune
Orlando Sentinel
Hartford Courant
Baltimore Sun
Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale)

I want them to suffer. I want it to be painful and drawn-out. I want to hear the moaning and bitching and wailing.

I want revenge.

[Boiling Pots]

And the Networks, Fox/Murdoch, CNN...all big media.

Then we gotta work on the thieving businesses, and chop them down to size.

[Clay Moore]

Don’t know how much it has gone national, but there is big talk in the local market here about Cuban doing some insider trading and saving himself $750K.

Martha Stewart went to prison for a lot less.

[abb]

Don’t know if you’ve taken note there, but another story in the DFW Metroplex is the sharing of content by the Dallas Morning News and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. They might even combine.

If they last long enough to do the deal...

[Boiling Pots]

It’s well known Cuban is officially potentially screwed by the SEC for his trades in mamma.com.

Martha Stewart went to jail for obstruction of justice (lying to the FBI). Insider Trading is a civil matter, although the Attorney’s Office may bring criminal charges.

[TET1968]

Memo to Mark:
Check your ego at the door or follow the path of Martha Stewart.

[GOPGuide]

But what I want to see is the Tribune’s newspapers turned to ash.

How would a Chapter 11 bankruptcy kill all those newspapers?

I thought the debt would be restructured and there would be mass layoffs, but the newspapers would still exist in some limited form?

[abb]

There will come a point - and I think it isn’t too far off - where there simply won’t be the revenues to meet sufficient payroll to physically put out a printed paper. There won’t be enough money to pay the delivery drivers, the pressmen, the editors, the writers and their administrative staff.

It takes a lot of manpower to put out a paper newspaper. Once that point is reached, the only value left is the physical plant - the property and buildings. The presses are worth scrap price or perhaps a little more if the Smithsonian wants them as exhibits.

The only thing left then will be an online paper. And the advertising revenue is not nearly enough to carry the overhead a typical newspaper now has. Plus online newspapers must compete against many, many other sites.

[GOPGuide]

Outstanding!

[abb]

http://gearino.com/?p=389
A prophecy fulfilled (almost)

[SevenofNine]

BOY CUBS Curse strike again eh Abb?

[abb]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Mercury-News-Managing-Editor-Join/story.aspx?guid={102DFF50-EA9A-47A8-8055-1903D2F894D9}

Mercury News Managing Editor to Join Sitrick And Co. Dave Satterfield Is the Latest in a Series of Respected Journalists to Join the Strategic Communications Firm

Last update: 5:00 p.m. EST Nov. 18, 2008 SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Award-winning journalist David Satterfield, currently the managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News, will be joining the Silicon Valley/San Francisco office of Sitrick And Company, one of the nation's leading public relations firms specializing in corporate, financial, transactional and crisis communications.

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(Official Dinosaur Media Wake®)

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003892624

Lunch Panel Debates War Coverage, Blogs and Fairness

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“Finally, when discussion turned to the dangers of growing opinion online and on cable television...”

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dangers?

[abb]

Here’s where a goodly number of unemployed ‘journalists’ will land. We conservatives best get on the stick if we want to be in the ball game.

http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/11/18/huffingtonpost-to-fund-investigative-journalism/

Huffingtonpost to fund investigative journalism

Just got back from a panel discussion at Michael’s restaurant in Manhattan where Huffingtonpost founder Arianna Huffington said that the news and commentary website is going to raise money to fund investigative journalism projects.

I asked her for more details afterward. She said there wouldn’t be any for another three months or so. That leaves me with precious little more to deliver than context. Her plan comes as the news business itself faces dire code-orange-style threat levels — many U.S. newspaper publishers are mired in debt and their ad sales are thinning, making it hard to see how they will soldier on. Not only that, investors are fleeing from them like the proverbial rats from a sinking ship and their equity value is hitting the low single digits.

For all media companies, whether or not they’re in the hands of investors, the ad revenue decline is hitting them hard, and all sorts of publications are axing staff. It leaves many media talking heads and bloggers wondering whether news will survive into the 21st century, at least in the way we know it.

Huffington’s website is small compared with big professional publishers, but it looks like she’s latching on to a growing trend. Mark Cuban, who was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading on Monday, is financing several investigative journalism ventures, including former CBS newsman Dan Rather’s reports. Two other projects that he has funded, sharesleuth.com and bailoutsleuth.com, seek to expose financial wrongdoings as well as poorly thought out ways to spend Wall Street bailout money amid the financial crisis. Both are trying to tackle big projects that it is becoming increasingly hard to pay for at many traditional media outlets.

There also is ProPublica.org, of course, the privately funded investigative journalism operation that’s helmed by former Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Paul Steiger.

As for Huffington, there is nothing else to report, but for now — Investigate this space.

[LS]

Hmm. This sounds vaguely familiar to what I’ve been preaching for years, that the news media would not go away no matter how terrible its income/profits get, and that the leftists would merely subsidize it outright. Huffington and Cuban and other idiots will pump money into “news” as propaganda, whether anyone buys it or not.

[GOPGuide]

I would prefer they fund their own news outright, at least then they won’t be able to say they are neutral like the NYTimes and WashPo.

[abb]

Sorry to be so late getting back to you. Gone last night and then the outage this morning and on the road all day today.

You are correct about the future ‘news’ being subsidized by the political parties. But it won’t be as paper newspapers or electronic broadcast. And it will have to compete against many, many other ‘news’ sources.

Perhaps that’s a distinction without a difference, but the choke hold that paper and electronic broadcast has had on information distribution is not long for this world.