NYT: Mexico's Slim is Riding to our Rescue

(MoneyWatch)  The nice thing about being The New York Times, as opposed to the Podunk Picayune, is that when you've got news about yourself, you can break it and guarantee that it will generate headlines around the world. Or, if you don't exactly "break" it, since in this case the Wall Street Journal had that honor, you can quickly provide a bunch of juicy details based on unnamed "sources," you know, the guys upstairs.

Thus it is with oddly inspiring and troubling news that Carlos Slim Helu, a Mexican billionaire who controls the largest cellphone company in Latin America, among other assets, is prepared to invest $250 million in the Times in exchange for warrants that will make him the largest shareholder in the company, owning about a third of its common stock.

If approved by the Times' board, which is said to be meeting today, this investment will help offset the company's looming $400 million line of credit that is set to expire later this spring. Those watching the company's fortunes, including yours truly, have for months now expressed concern that the Times was shopping assets -- like its headquarters building in Manhattan, and its stake in the Boston Red Sox -- in one of the worst markets imaginable.

Trying to sell commercial real estate right now resembles an elephant with serious hemorrhoids trying to push out his stool -- not a pretty sight. It's an act of desperation, really, because the only potential takers are going to be, yes, bottom-feeders.

On the other hand, the Times is carrying $1.1 billion in debt, all of which comes due over the next couple of years, and is enduring the worst decline in advertising revenue in its recorded history.

So why would a man who already has lost over half of the value of his initial $128 million investment in the Times last fall be so eager to throw good money after bad? Felix Salmon thinks he knows the answer: "I'm sure Slim has dreams of control, there's no other reason why he'd do this."
The Times' version of the pending investment marvels that Slim has expressed no interest in a board seat or voting control of any kind. Of course, if the man holding a third of the company's stock wishes to place a phone call to Mister Sulzberger at some future date, about anything whatsoever, that is a call that most certainly will be answered.