It’s official: MySpace has closed on its acquisition of Imeem, the streaming music service. It is paying a fire-sale price of $1 million, sources familiar with the situation tell me, and could pay up to $7 million to $9 million in earn-outs for key employees, who will likely include CEO Dalton Caldwell. Investors like Sequoia and Warner Music Group had pumped at least $25 million into the venture.
Are Warner Music Group and EMI, which have been circling each other for nearly a decade, finally ready to consummate their relationship?
That’s the obvious question in light of news that both Terra Firma, the private equity group that bought EMI in 2007, and Citigroup, which funded most of that transaction, have written down most of their investments in the music company.
It’s official: Scripps Networks Interactive has won the Travel Channel auction. In a deal that values the channel at $975 million, Scripps will acquire a majority interest in the property while current owner Cox retains a 35 percent stake. News Corp., among others, had been bidding for the channel.
What’s one of the biggest names in magazine publishing worth? These days, maybe $5 million.
That’s the high end of the range Bloomberg will be paying for BusinessWeek, reports BusinessWeek. Next question: How many of the magazine’s employees stay on once the deal closes later this year? BusinessWeek publisher Keith Fox can’t make any assurances. But he does call the deal “exciting.”
Comcast says it doesn’t have a deal to buy NBC Universal. Does it want to buy NBC Universal? Ask COO Steve Burke and you’re going to get a confusing answer.
Start-ups whose business plans are based on selling advertising are having a very hard time raising money. But start-ups that want to make money by helping other people sell advertising? That’s another story.
Today’s example: Rubicon Project, a Los Angeles-based advertising-optimization start-up, has raised a $9 million C round led by Peacock Equity, the joint venture co-owned by GE Capital and GE’s NBC Universal.
The New York Times is getting out of the radio business. Did you know the New York Times was in the radio business? Exactly. Anyway, now it’s not. The cash-strapped publisher has sold WQXR-FM for $45 million, carving up the asset into two packages for different buyers–local NPR affiliate WNYC and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Radio. The money will go to paying down the paper’s debt: Not much, but more than the company may get for the Boston Globe.
Looking for lots of specifics about the $200 million at $10 billion valuation deal that Facebook and Digital Sky Technologies just announced? Then you have come to the wrong conference call, my friend. But for what it’s worth, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did sound fairly upbeat and confident during his chat with reporters Tuesday morning–the way you’d expect someone who just cashed a check for a couple hundred million to sound.
The big picture: Even though Facebook’s official valuation has slid from $15 billion (November 2007, when Microsoft invested) to $10 billion, Zuckerberg is OK with that, arguing that 1) that deal was done at the peak of the market, and 2) it was never really a financial deal, but a way for Microsoft to partner up with Facebook.
Turns out not everyone is convinced that big music is dying: Investors have snapped up $1.1 billion in debt issued by Warner Music Group–double the amount the company had originally planned on issuing when it announced the offering yesterday morning. The fine print gives the label some flexibility in case of a “major music transaction”–say, perhaps, a deal to merge with EMI.
The Associated Press is fed up with… the Internet, apparently. And it’s going to do… something about it. At the news-gathering co-op’s annual meeting today, AP chairman Dean Singleton let rip a sort of hellfire-and-brimstone speech in which he announced the AP’s vague plans to stop unnamed scoundrels from making money from their work.
Unstated but obvious public enemy number one: Google.
SpiralFrog, the free music service that also doubled as an awesome money-burning machine, has finally given up the ghost. The site, which industry sources said had been shopping itself in recent months, shut down last night, and any remaining assets are being handed over to creditors.
Why did Blockbuster release some of its fourth-quarter numbers today–two weeks before it was scheduled to do so? Because it wanted to impress investors who freaked out on Tuesday when the company had to swat away rumors that it was headed for Chapter 11. Alas, investors are giving the numbers mixed reviews.
Just like everyone else who racked up lots of loans when the banks were giving cash with almost no strings attached, big media have a debt hangover. Clear Channel, whose private equity owners took on $17 billion in debt to acquire it last year, is getting hammered by investors who think it won’t be able to pay that money back. Next up for scrutiny: CBS, which has a big debt payment due next year and not that much cash on hand.
As predicted, Sam Zell’s Tribune Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In the company’s initial filing, it lists assets of $7.6 billion and $12.9 billion in liabilities. Much of that debt belongs to big banks, of course–J.P. Morgan has more than $1 billion by itself. But Tribune owes lots of money to lots of media companies, too.
CBS chairman Sumner Redstone’s message to investors: Don’t worry, I’m done selling shares in my beaten-down media properties. But Redstone, who has already had to sell $233 million worth of CBS and Viacom stock earlier this month, wouldn’t discuss his current debt troubles with analysts during this morning’s earnings call.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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