CNBC is reporting today that Hank Greenberg, Former Chairman and CEO of AIG, has approached investment bankers and is actively engaged in trying to buy The New York Times Company, and that an unnamed billionaire is also interested in buying the company. This follows an earlier report in NYPost that Greenberg has begun “buying huge blocks of New York Times stock to break the Sulzberger family’s stranglehold on the media empire”. No word on how much.
NYP further reports that a major stock position would put Greenberg “in league with already angry Times’ shareholders, such as Morgan Stanley Investment Management, to battle the board over whether the founding Ochs-Sulzberger family should hold a powerful class of stock that accounts for a majority of the voting power at the company”.
CBA major stock position would put Greenberg in league with already angry Times’ shareholders, such as Morgan Stanley Investment Management, to battle the board over whether the founding Ochs-Sulzberger family should hold a powerful class of stock that accounts for a majority of the voting power at the company.”
CNBC meanwhile further reports that “investment bankers have told him it would be next to impossible, if not impossible, because let’s face it, the New York Times has two classes of stock, the family controls the voting stock which makes it difficult for Hank Greenberg to come in there or essentially any investor to come in there and buy the company. But Greenberg is intent on pushing the envelope on this.”