In today's NY Times they report that a group including Cumulus Media, The Blackstone Group, and Bain Capital are buying the Susquehanna radio group for 1 billion dollars. RnR says maybe not.
link to Reuters article on sale
Cumulus Media (from Yahoo link)
Cumulus Media, Inc., a radio broadcasting company, engages in the acquisition, ownership, and operation of radio stations in mid-size markets in the United States. As of December 31, 2004, the company owned and operated 291 radio stations in 59 mid-sized media markets, as well as provided sales and marketing services for 12 radio stations in 6 markets. Cumulus Media was founded in 1997 by Lewis W. Dickey, Jr. and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
more at the link
Who is Bain Capital? A big investment group...
Wikipedia link for info.
Who is The Blackstone Group? An investment group. Wikipedia link for info.
From their web page:
Blackstone has invested in over 87 companies in a variety of industries, geographies and economic environments. Blackstone's current holdings include such diverse companies as Allied Waste, Celanese, Cine UK/UGC, Graham Packaging, Houghton Mifflin, Nalco, Southern Cross/NHP, Spirit Group, TRW Automotive, Texas Genco, and Universal Orlando. The total enterprise value of all transactions effected up to March 31, 2005, is over $110 billion. In many of its investments Blackstone has partnered with leading corporations around the world, including AOL Time Warner (Six Flags transaction), AT&T (Bresnan transaction), Northrop Grumman, Sony, Union Carbide, Union Pacific (CNW transaction), USX, and Vivendi. These corporate partnerships have been a key element in Blackstone's approach to investing, accounting for about 51% of the equity capital invested by Blackstone Capital Partners I, II, III, and IV, and Blackstone Communications Partners I.
Radio and Records says today:
A source close to the negotiations tells R&R that an announcement on the buyer — or buyers — for Susquehanna Radio's stations will likely come "within a week or two," but cautioned that rumors of Cumulus Media emerging as the winning bidder may be premature.
The source noted that if the group led by current Susquehanna Radio COO David Kennedy could assemble funding for both the radio and cable assets, it would stand a solid chance of winning both. However, the source said that if Comcast wins the bidding for Susquehanna's cable division — which is a likely scenario — Kennedy's group would be at risk of being outbid on the radio group.
The source also noted that Susquehanna's radio group might be divided up among a few bidders since some clusters — such as Kansas City — would be attractive to many suitors.
Cumulus was named as the front-runner to buy the whole radio group in a New York Times article published today, but a Cumulus rep declined to comment when contacted by R&R. A call to Susquehanna wasn't immediately returned.
Entercom and Citadel have also been mentioned as active bidders for Susquehanna's radio assets, along with Bonneville, Cox, Greater Media and NextMedia. Emmis is also rumored to have made a late run at the assets, and there's talk that Clear Channel may be eyeing the Kansas City cluster since it's the only top-30 market, besides Puerto Rico, where the company doesn't currently operate.
So what do I know? nothing...
But even when the sale is announced it may not be over. Since this will big radio sale, deals may be made, or have already been made to sell of some of the stations to other buyers.
or not
No comments:
Post a Comment