Gore to Rake in IPO Millions

Newsmax ^ | 3/6/08 | n/a

[kiriath_jearim]

Former Vice President and global warming crusader Al Gore stands to make close to $50 million when the TV channel he co-founded goes public with an Initial Public Offering.

Current TV, which debuted in August 2005, has been billed as “television for the Internet generation" of tech-savvy 18-to-34-year-olds, and allows viewers to contribute much of its content.

But it currently is available in only about 19 million U.S. homes, and has lost $31.5 million over the last three years, Ron Grover discloses in BusinessWeek.

Current Media, Current TV’s parent company, hopes to raise $100 million in a public offering it filed on Jan. 28. Some of the money raised will go to lenders, who include a few major Democratic Party fundraisers.

“Something about this deal just doesn’t sit right with me,” Grover observes.

He notes that Gore and co-founder Joel Hyatt not only will take “piles of cash,” but they also collect “hefty salaries for a company that hasn’t shown a profit in three years — taking down $491,677 apiece last year in cash.”

Gore and Hyatt also collected $550,000 bonuses for, in Gore’s case, helping get the company new affiliate agreements and putting together a management team. The two currently receive $600,000 a year in salary and can collect additional bonuses.

“What really sticks out to me,” Grover writes, is that Gore and Hyatt, “who jumpstarted the company with a broken-down Newsworld International channel they bought for $70.9 million, will have the kind of hammer-lock control over the company decried by shareholder rights activists and many of the same unions that supported Gore for years.”

Gore and Hyatt will control all of the company’s B shares, which give them 10 votes for every vote of a common shareholder with a Class A share, according to the filing.

The company hasn’t yet set a price per share for its IPO, but Grover cites one estimate of between $13 and $15 per share, making Gore’s 3.7 million shares worth more than $48 million.

[Tallguy]

Legalized bribery. Members of Congress & the Executive (which Gore is not) should not be allowed to participate in IPO’s.

[The_Republican]

Can’t hate him for being a Capitalist!

[Resolute Conservative]

Anyone who buys this is a certifiable idiot.

[BubbaBobTX]

The network is unwatchable. With the current volatility in the market I can not believe they are going to be able to go through with this IPO at this time.

[Bitsy]

Can’t hate him for being a Capitalist!

Capitalist - no. Two-bit, lying hustler - yes.

[evad]

“Something about this deal just doesn’t sit right with me,” Grover observes.

He notes that Gore and co-founder Joel Hyatt not only will take “piles of cash,” but they also collect “hefty salaries for a company that hasn’t shown a profit in three years — taking down $491,677 apiece last year in cash.”

Only in Liberal Land.

I'll be amazed if this thing ever turns a real profit.

[The_Republican]

Exactly! LOL!

[Brad from Tennessee]

BUSINESS WEEK is warning investors away from this scam:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2008/tc2008035_855093.htm

[unkus]

As in Air America? No matter, Algore will take the cash and........ fly away.

[ARE SOLE]

Can’t hate him for being a Capitalist!

Capitalist, no. Hypocrite? Yes.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

“Current Media, Current TV’s parent company, hopes to raise $100 million in a public offering it filed on Jan. 28.”

“Former Vice President and global warming crusader Al Gore stands to make close to $50 million when the TV channel he co-founded goes public with an Initial Public Offering”

Sounds like a personal Gore fund raiser to me.

[DuncanWaring]

They may make a Public Offering, but that doesn't necessarily mean anyone will buy.

[YHAOS]

Can we see a securities scandal looming on the horizon?

A scandal that will not be investigated.

[ozzymandus]

Algore is involved in too many crooked business deals to get back into politics. His “carbon credits” scam needs to be investigated by the FBI.

[Red_Devil 232]

AlGore must be just as jealous of Obama’s $55 million take in Feb. as Jessie Jackson is! The original scam artists have lost their touch!

[capt. norm]

As if there aren't way too many cable/satellite TV channels out there already.

There never was nor will there be enough demand for that kind of television to support the operations.

I recently "killed off" a whole bunch of channels from my Comcast subscription. We had the "Platinum" package which includes just about every channel known to science.

I monitored our channel usage and found out that we had not watched HBO or any other premium channel since June of last year. Considering the product that Hollywood is putting out and the other crap amounting to "liberalism on Parade", I became sick of my money flowing into their hands for a product I don't even use and a fleeting moment of sanity hit me.

It happened when I was channel-flipping and ran across Bill Maher on HBO and realized that when I paid my monthly dues to Comcast, some of that money was flowing into his pocket...and that DID IT.

[Zakeet]

Will Current TV go the way of Err America? Will the Nobel Prize winning environmental guru will get a taste of Sarbanes-Oxley in the event his grand plan fails? Will the plaintiff's bar battle the darling of the Loony Left? Will the Rats eat one of their own? Will the fat cat Rat donors get sucked into the mess for using the IPO proceeds to pay back their loans? Will Bonehead have to get a real job as a lobbyist, or politician, or inventor, or snake oil salesman to pay legal bills? Do wild bears ... ?

Stay tuned Freepers. This could be fun to watch unfold over the next few years.

[tioga]

Carbon credits....A fool and his money. Ah, well. Anyone who takes salaries and then goes public with a losing enterprise to rip off useful idiots is a scammer of the highest degree.....look into the hill/bill scandals...terry mc’s FL land deals.......it’s all a scam to the left..........THAT is not capitalism. It’t highway robbery.

[Entrepreneur]

Members of Congress & the Executive (which Gore is not) should not be allowed to participate in IPO’s.

Absolutely agree. Lacking that, there should be full public disclosure anytime a top government official or the official's trust participates in an IPO, private placement, etc.