Posted on 01/14/2015 10:49:30 PM PST by Bratch
Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu now owns more of the New York Times Company than does the Sulzberger family, which has controlled the venerable news provider since 1896. Slim became the dominant investor today after paying $101.1 million to exercise warrants that boosted his ownership of Class A shares by 11.9 million to 27.8 million, equal to 16.8% of the voting stock, the company says. The billionaire acquired the warrants in 2009 when he bought $250 million of the Times’ notes. The investment helped see the company through a dark period as print ads fell, and it had to invest in its digital platform. The terms guaranteed Slim a sweet return of 14% a year; the company repaid the loan in 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at deadline.com ...
New NYT motto...’badges?...we don’t need no stinking badges’
When will Carlos Slim rename the NYT to The Mexican Times? If not, why not?
Carlos Slim’s wallet while be SLIMMER soon. :-)
This doesn’t matter.
“The Times Company has a dual share structure: Class A stock, which is publicly traded, and a special class of stock, Class B, that allows the Sulzbergers to elect about 70 percent of the company’s board.”
This means that the Sulzbergers would control the NYT even if Slim bought 100% of the Class A stock.
Importantly, a while back, the Sulzbergers considered taking the NYT private if its Class A stock price fell too low, which would totally screw its Class A stockholders.
“Somebody made the observation that the NYT is on some of the most valuable real estate in the world. If he buys the newspaper, he will also own the building.”
Hopefully, he will shut them down and build condos.
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