Posted on 06/10/2023 4:04:55 PM PDT by dynachrome
Graeme Massie Thu, June 8, 2023 at 2:11 PM MDT·2 min read A Donald Trump-supporting New York billionaire says that he wants to buy embattled CNN from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Grocery mogul John Catsimatidis told The New York Post that he would “go run the place tomorrow morning and all I’d want is $1 per year.”
The news network has been hit by falling ratings and earlier this week under-fire CEO Chris Licht, who attempted to drag CNN to the right, was fired after a searing profile in The Atlantic.
Greek-born Mr Catsimatidis, 74, refused to tell the newspaper how much he would be willing to offer for CNN.
“It’s up to the investment bankers to come up with the numbers,” he said, as he suggested that finance to complete the deal would not be an issue.
“We could always bring partners in, but I want to run the place,” he continued. “We are capable of putting down a substantial amount of money.”
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I think I can scrape up $50 bucks. Isn’t that CNN’s current market value?
“It’s up to the investment bankers to come up with the numbers,” he said, as he suggested that finance to complete the deal would not be an issue.
“after a searing profile in The Atlantic”
Too many Trump people and not enough loud leftists were in the Town Hall audience.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jun/05/chris-licht-atlantic-profile-cnn-trump-town-hall
This guy bought a dying WABC 770 AM in NYC and has turned it into a totally dominating powerhouse for all hours of the day.
He kinda sounds like a bit of a rube, but I wouldn’t underestimate his media building skills.
If he gets a hold of CNN, you can stick a fork in Fox.
Meet New York grocery billionaire John Catsimatidis
Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, which was probably worth a few billion.
CNN is a damaged brand, but it still has widespread cable carriage.
CNN might fetch around $2 billion. There is a big audience for cable news done right.
Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter,
$2 billion!!!!!!! For CNN???? Yikes....
“On June 27, 2019, Red Apple Media, which is owned by John Catsimatidis, bought WABC from Cumulus Media for $12.5 million in cash. The sale closed on March 2, 2020.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WABC_(AM)
That’s less than $1 per broadcast area person.
Google has a market capitalization of around $1500 billion (according to a google search).
The google market capitalization works out to be about $170 per person in the world.
2 billion for a hundred viewers?
.
Will the USIC sell CNN? I bet not.
Cats is an interesting guy, he is keeping WABC pertinent after the great defection to WOR with Rush, well, Rush is gone so anything is possible..
“2 billion for a hundred viewers?”
Yeah, but if he cleaned house and turned it into a truth-telling Conservative news org, ratings would go through the roof.
Twitter sold to Musk because they didn’t know how to do what he was promising to do for the shareholders. WB Discovery is in the same boat.
Whether or not this deal happens, this is exactly what is needed, conservatives taking over some of these media outlets.
Whatever CNN’s real value is, is tied to the cable bundle.
CNN has LOTS of paying subscribers who are held hostage by the cable bundle.
But the cable bundle may implode if as reported ESPN offers a standalone streaming service.
When You Tube TV in effect took regional sports networks out of the cable bundle, RSN’s imploded.
Hence the Bally Sports bankruptcy.
Whatever the value of those regional sports networks is, that value is not tied to cable bundling.
Whatever entity owns CNN would be smart to sell CNN now for whatever it can get, because its current value is higher than its future value, when the cable bundle disintegrates.
The loss of cable viewers is a hot topic among those who cover media.
Cable subscribers have fallen to a number equal to the early eighties and late seventies.
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