The funny part of this deal is that Al Gore is probably going to just barely break even on it, if that; but al-Jazeera is going to be shafted six ways from Sunday.
To start with, they are paying a LOT more than Current TV is worth, likely assuming that they will also get its existing contracts with cable and content providers. Guess what?
First of all, the real assets of Current TV are a few studios and cameras and some technical equipment. Worth $10-20 million tops. Not the $500 million they bought it for.
But the real zinger is that all the new cable, Internet, and content contracts are going to be made at the end of January! The National Association of Television Program Executives are holding their huge annual convention there to buy and sell cable and Internet service and content, the TV shows.
It is an orgy of horse-trading, package deals, and utterly cutthroat deal making. And al-Jazeera is going to show up at the Hotel Fountainbleu, fat, dumb, and happy, to be confounded by what looks like a stock exchange trading pit, many of whose traders are Jewish, waving many hundreds of pages of contracts around and wheeling and dealing like crazy.
Did I mention that many of these media types are Jewish?
While in the Casbah, money talks, a group of befuddled Arabs with a lot of money walking around are just begging to be totally ripped-off.
Already Time-Warner has canceled its Current TV contract. So while al-Jazeera was hoping for a quick 60 million homes ready for their content, guess what?
That's a hoot! You know, come to think of it, someone should turn that in to a TV show! :)