So which stock would intelligent Freepers want in their Iras, 401ks or Keoughs? If one of your mutual funds owns a newspaper dinosaur stock versus Haliburton, ask the fund manager why?
So which stock would intelligent Freepers want in their Iras, 401ks or Keoughs? If one of your mutual funds owns a newspaper dinosaur stock versus Haliburton, ask the fund manager why?
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Crain's ChicagoBusiness.com
Low stock price makes Tribune vulnerable to takeover: CEO
By Gregory Meyer
May 02, 2006
(Crain’s) — Tribune Co. Chairman and CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons acknowledged Tuesday that the media company’s weak stock price makes it potentially vulnerable to a bid from an outside buyer.
In the context of the pending sale of newspaper giant Knight Ridder Inc. to McClatchy Co., “everything in this environment is possible,” Mr. FitzSimons said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. “That’s one of the reasons we have to operate as efficiently as we are operating right now and continue to look for efficiencies.”
Tribune’s shareholder base — the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, the Chandler Trusts and company employees collectively own a 35% stake in the company — could potentially complicate a takeover play.
“But still, it’s very possible,” Mr. FitzSimons said in response to a question submitted in writing by a company employee.
Investors have been raising the specter of takeover for months as Chicago-based Tribune’s share price drifted to multi-year lows. The stock closed Monday at $28.57, down 39% since Mr. FitzSimons replaced John Madigan as chief executive on Jan. 1, 2003. “Tribune is not the next Knight Ridder, unless it’s in the mid-$20s,” wrote one Deutsche Bank analyst in a research note in mid-March.
Unlike Knight Ridder, no big shareholders are publicly urging Tribune to sell. But “patience is wearing a little thin,” said Barry Lucas, an analyst at Gabelli & Co. in Rye, N.Y. Still, “I would characterize (a sale) as ‘possible.’ ‘Very possible’ would be a reach, in my view,” Mr. Lucas said.
The meeting went off without fireworks in a converted TV studio inside Tribune Tower. A shareholder resolution calling for Tribune’s board of directors to be elected annually instead of on staggered three-year terms was defeated by a margin of 53% to 46% of votes cast, with 1% abstaining.
Only three attendees rose to question Mr. FitzSimons: perennial corporate gadfly Martin Glotzer, a man from Wilmette angry about a couple of mistakes and omissions in the Chicago Tribune and a representative of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition who pressed the company to make its executive ranks more diverse.
Kathryn C. Turner, the board’s only African-American member and one of two female members, stepped down Tuesday in a previously announced resignation. The company has not yet set a timetable for replacing her, a spokesman said.
Mr. FitzSimons underscored management efforts to cut costs and find new revenue opportunities, noting that Internet revenue is expected to make up 6% of Tribune’s publishing ad revenue this year and 12% of it in three years. About 65% of Tribune’s $5.6 billion in revenue last year came from its newspapers and other publishing properties, while the rest came from broadcasting.
He did not address pressures to sell off Tribune’s assets, which in addition to newspapers in 11 markets and TV stations in 26, include WGN-AM 720, the Chicago Cubs and stakes in CareerBuilder and the TV Food Network.
But recent operating results hung over talk of growth plans. Last year’s revenue was down 2.3%, while profit slipped 3.8%. In the first quarter of 2006, Tribune reported a profit of $102.8 million, down 28% from $142.8 million the year earlier.
“2005 was clearly a difficult year for Tribune. A choppy advertising environment and continued competition from all media posed additional challenges,” Mr. FitzSimons said. “Nonetheless, as the media landscape evolves, newspapers and broadcast television remain very valuable tools for marketers.”
In the end I reckon you got your six bloated whales trying to use their massive 50-500 year old technology to compete in the thermonuclear war known as information technology. A battlefield where combatants sometimes measure the half life of new technology in months.