Author: muckety

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Andre Agassi has plenty to keep him occupied since his tearful farewell to tennis at last year’s U.S. Open.

Agassi is the founder of a charter school in his hometown Las Vegas and a charitable foundation headed by his long-time friend and agent, Perry Rogers.

The foundation board includes such luminaries as Elton John and Emeril Lagasse.

On the web
After tennis, a new set of priorities for Agassi – Los Angeles Times

Florida investor Bruce Sherman finds himself in the midst of another media company buyout. This time it’s Hearst-Argyle Television, which received an offer from majority shareholder Hearst Corporation.

Hearst, a privately held publisher of newspapers, magazines and Internet properties, already owns more than 73 percent of the broadcaster’s shares. It is offering $600 million for the remainder.

Sherman, who runs Private Capital Management, instigated the eventual sale last year of newspaper publisher Knight Ridder to McClatchy. This time, he appears to be more passive, but there is a much bigger appetite for the target company stock he controls.

Hearst said it would make a tender offer of $23.50 a share for Hearst-Argyle, but investors bid the price well past $25 at the market close Friday, indicating other bids are expected.

Private Capital Management owns 8.4 million shares of Hearst-Argyle, according to the company’s April proxy statement. That equals about one-third of the shares not already held by Hearst Corporation.

Why so much interest in Hearst-Argyle, which owns network affiliated TV stations that reach about 18 percent of the nation?

Some analysts expect the 2008 election campaign to generate record ad revenue to television stations of up to $3 billion, according to Reuters.

On the web
Hearst Makes $600 Million Bid To Buy the Rest of Hearst-Argyle – Wall Street Journal
TV, radio look for record ad money in election – Reuters

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Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co., a major subprime lender, said Wednesday it would close 65 branches around the country and fire 1,600 workers as the mortgage meltdown continues to spread.

For at least two of the company’s directors, it must have seemed like deja vu all over again.

Richard Pratt and Bowers Espy were S&L regulators in the early 1980s as that industry was in crisis.

Pratt was Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. Espy was deputy director of financial analysis and policy research at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. In 1981, Pratt predicted that an average of one S&L per day would hit zero net worth.

The government bailout of the thrift industry, which extended well into the 1990s, eventually cost taxpayers more than $100 billion. Both the FSLIC, which insured deposits, and the FHLBB were abolished in 1989.

After Espy went to work for Merrill Lynch, he acquired assets from the Resolution Trust Corporation, which disposed of properties held by failed S&Ls.

On the web
Accredited Halts Loans, Slashes Jobs – Smart Money

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