Posted on 05/15/2008 7:31:27 AM PDT by abb
Lee Enterprises Inc. took a goodwill impairment charge of $772 million in a revised financial report that pushed its loss to $716.4 million, or $15.90 per share, for its second fiscal quarter ended March 30.
The new figures, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Wednesday, revised a report in April that had indicated a loss of $4.45 million, or 10 cents a share, for the quarter.
In addition to the taking the non-cash goodwill impairment charge, Lee recorded a $115.97 million charge to reduce the carrying value of amortized intangibles, and a charge of $3 million to reduce the value of non-amortized intangible assets.
Lee also reduced the carrying value of its stake in the Tucson, Ariz., joint operating agreement (JOA) by $90.4 million. Lee publishes the dominant Arizona Daily Star in the JOA with Gannett Co.'s Tucson Citizen.
Lee had said in April it would take a substantial impairment charge. Further changes could yet come as it determines the fair value of its business, the company said Wednesday.
"Because of the timing and complexity of the calculations required, the company has not yet completed the required determination of fair value," it said.
ping
A bit of slightly related irony ... these newspapers are almost exclusively buying and selling the “global warming, tree hugging” orthodoxy ... yet they continue to cut down perfectly good trees to make perfectly awful newspapers.
My wifes grandfather called it a
Yellow Journal 80 years ago.
It is now a red journal. A socialist piece of trash.
Good riddance.
My wifes grandfather called it a
Yellow Journal 80 years ago.
It is now a red journal. A socialist piece of trash.
Good riddance.
You can say thet again.
“goodwill impairment charge” is probably a good accounting term to apply to most of the Dinosaur media.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080514/earns_lee_enterprises.html?.v=2
Lee Enterprises revised Q2 earnings to reflect wider loss
Wednesday May 14, 8:48 pm ET
By David Pitt, AP Business Writer
Lee Enterprises revised Q2 earnings report; Increases loss to $716 million
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises Inc. revised figures for its second fiscal quarter Wednesday to include charges related to a reduction in the value of its assets.
The company’s revised report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, indicated a loss of $716.4 million, or $15.90 per share, in the quarter ended March 30.
In April, Lee had reported a loss of $4.45 million, or 10 cents a share, which had included a one-time charge related to its purchase of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The company indicated then that it would revise the report to include a reduction of carry-over asset value.
A year ago, the company earned $11.9 million, or 26 cents a share.
The loss in this year’s quarter included a preliminary pretax non-cash charge of $722 million to reduce the carrying value of goodwill. The company also recorded a charge of $3 million to reduce the value of non-amortized intangible assets and $115.97 million to reduce the carrying value of amortized intangibles.
An additional pretax charge of $90.4 million was recorded as a reduction in the carrying value of the company’s investment in an Arizona partnership that owns portions of the Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Citizen.
The company said the re-evaluation of its business was due primarily to the continuing and increasing difference between its stock price and the per-share carrying value of its net assets.
“Recent deterioration in the company’s revenue and the overall recessionary operating environment for the company and other publishing companies were also factors in the timing of the analysis,” the company said. “The company concluded the fair value of its business did not exceed the carrying value of its net assets as of March 30, 2008.”
The company said it has not yet completed the determination of fair value because of the timing and complexity of the calculations. The final determination of reductions could change significantly, it said.
Excluding one-time charges, the company earned 8 cents a share in the second quarter compared with 19 cents a year ago.
Sales declined 4.7 percent to $247.7 million for the quarter, and circulation revenue fell 1.7 percent to $49.1 million.
Lee shares fell 30 cents, or 3.9 percent, to close at $7.41. Shares have traded between $7.01 and $26.58 in the past 52 weeks.
Lee Enterprises Inc.: http://www.lee.net
The Enronning of the nation’s dinosaur fishwraps continues and seems to be speeding up.
The St. Louis PD was owned by the Pulitzer family until a few years ago. Looks like they got out just in time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/01/business/media/01paper.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
February 1, 2005
Pulitzer to Be Acquired by Lee Enterprises
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Pulitzer Inc., the publisher of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Arizona Daily Star and 12 other daily newspapers in the Midwest and West, has agreed to be acquired by Lee Enterprises, a newspaper chain based in Davenport, Iowa, for nearly $1.5 billion.
The deal joins two like-minded companies. Lee’s 44 daily newspapers stretch from Glens Falls, N.Y.,(where it publishes The Post-Star) to Oceanside, Calif., (The North County Times), but are largely clustered in the Midwest. The company publishes The Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times in Madison, Wis., and The Sioux City Journal in Sioux City, Iowa.
The companies announced the deal late Sunday night, in unannounced e-mail statements sent to reporters who cover the industry, as well as in articles that appeared yesterday in their own publications.
By Lee’s tally, the 58 daily newspapers owned by the combined company, which would be known as Lee, would make it the fourth largest in the country, behind Gannett, Community Newspaper Holdings and Liberty Group Publishing. As measured by combined weekday circulation, the company would rank seventh, Lee said. Pulitzer would be a subsidiary.
“It’s just an ideal fit,” said Mary Junck, chairwoman, president and chief executive of Lee, which had revenue of $683 million for the fiscal year ended in September. “Pulitzer operates in exactly the kind of markets Lee operates in.”
snip
The Post-Dispatch used to be a great newspaper. It has turned into a worse piece of garbage than even the worthless NYT. It would be a good thing if he folded. The best newspaper we ever had was the Globe-Democrat but it folded decades ago.
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