Free Republic

Sure it’s for a life-saving loan, but the New York Times [NYT] Co.’s decision to do business with controversial Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu is seen by some as a deal with the devil. “He has a mixed reputation on his best day,” Douglas A. McIntyre, editor of 24/7 Wall St., a financial commentary service, said about Slim, one of the world’s richest men. Borrowing money from a man that the Times called a robber baron and a thief in 2007 shows that finding someone to invest in the newspaper “must have been very, very hard,” McIntyre said. Late Monday,...

The rumors about Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim investing in The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) are heating up. Andrew Ross Sorkin reports that Slim is near a deal to invest up to $250 million in a deal that could be approved by the company's board of directors today. According to Sorkin, "As part of Mr. Slim's investment, which resembles a loan, he is expected to get a special annual dividend, perhaps as high as 10 percent or more on this investment, these people said." What is interesting is that Mr. Slim is not set to receive any control of...

New York Times Co (NYT.N) shares fell on Tuesday after the company agreed to a pricey $250 million loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim that it will use to repay debt coming due in May. -snip- "Frankly, New York Times should be pleased they were able to get this financing at all, in our view, given all the pressures going against the company," Barclays Capital analyst Craig Huber wrote in a note to investors. "Nevertheless, the interest rate is very expensive on an absolute basis and is not a good sign for peer newspaper companies should they try to follow...

MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)--Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's decision to loan the New York Times $250 million gives a vote of confidence to a debt-strapped publisher at a time when the financial viability of print is being widely questioned in the age of the Internet. The New York Times Co. (NYT) said Tuesday it will use the money to refinance existing debt, but also continues to seek other financing and will press ahead with cost-cutting measures. Slim's move to expand his involvement with the Times raised some eyebrows given difficulties faced by newspaper publishers seeing double-digit declines in advertising revenue.