Like everyone else in the music business, Universal Music Group had a rough end to 2008. But compared to its peers, the largest music company in the world did all right. It attributes some of its success to marijuana enthusiast Lil Wayne.
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.
How serious is media investment group Quadrangle about keeping its annual Foursquare conference private? Serious enough that the only account I’ve seen of it stayed live on the Web for just a few hours yesterday. Portfolio.com media blogger Jeff Bercovici posted a short item about one of the panels yesterday afternoon; later that evening, the story had disappeared.
Notes from Quadrangle’s Foursquare hush-hush media and tech conference: CBS anchor Katie Couric says she consulted former senator Sam Nunn and Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haas before her now-famous interrogation of the VP candidate.
Under normal circumstances, if the CEOs of big companies like Cisco, Microsoft, and Comcast speak in front of an audience of bigwigs, it’s news. But you’re unlikely to hear what John Chambers, Steve Ballmer and Brian Roberts say today and tomorrow at Quadrangle’s Foursquare conference–no press allowed. Unless…
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.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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