New York Times to Boston Globe Bidders: Take Your Time!
by Peter Kafka
Posted on July 7, 2009 at 7:46 AM PT
Stressed about making tomorrow morning’s deadline to submit a bid for the Boston Globe? No worries! The New York Times (NYT), which is selling the paper it bought in 1993, is telling prospective buyers to take their time.
Goldman Sachs (GS), which is running the auction for the Times, had originally told bidders to submit their offers by July 8. But as of last night, that deadline has been pushed back, with no new deadline to replace it, reports…the Boston Globe.
The Globe doesn’t know what the extension means, but it does have a concise roundup of potential bidders:
Three local businessmen have surfaced as potential Globe bidders: Stephen Pagliuca, co-owner of the Boston Celtics and managing director at the Bain Capital private equity firm; Jack Connors, a former advertising executive and chairman of Partners HealthCare; and Stephen Taylor, a former Globe executive and member of the family that sold the newspaper to the Times Co. for $1.1 billion in 1993. Connors and Pagliuca, who initially were considering separate bids, requested and were given permission by Goldman Sachs to join forces and submit a common bid.
The other big question. How much will the winner end up paying for the paper? A lot less than what the Times paid for it 16 years ago, obviously.
The Times has already told bidders that they should expect to assume $59 million in pension liabilities if they walk away with the paper, but beyond that, it’s anyone guess. The paper’s own David Carr went through this exercise last month and elicited guesstimates that ranged from $1 to $250 million.
