paidContent - NYT Co: Buy The Globe, Get Worcester Telegram As Well
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) hopes to sell off another New England newspaper, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, as part of a package effort to sell the Boston Globe, according to a letter sent to potential bidders by the banker Goldman Sachs. NYT got a copy of it and reports that the company was looking to seal the deal quickly. It wants to wrap up the first round bids by July 8 deadline, after which the company would choose which potential buyers would participate in a second round and would be allowed to submit binding offers. The two papers had some joint operations, so it would make sense to sell them together. Between the two, the buyer would need to assume the papers $59 million in pension liabilities—$51 million for the Globe and $8 million for the T&G, according to the letter.
According to another story in Boston Globe, there are three names that have emerged as potential bidders: Boston Celtics co-owner and PE investor Stephen Pagliuca, former ad executive Jack Connors, and former Globe executive Stephen Taylor, a member of the family that sold the Globe to the Times Co. It is likelt, though that any buyer may then try to sell of the Telegram later to another buyer, the story says.
According to an internal NYTCo memo sent out earlier this week, revenues at the New England Media Group (which includes the Globe, Boston.com, the Telegram & Gazette and its Web site) have declined from $700 million in 2004 to $524 million last year.
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By Rafat Ali