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Cox sells majority TV interest to Apollo


The Frog

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What’s the problem with Cox? They not making enough money? I know Tribune started the Sinclair ordeal because after severing ties with the newspaper they dropped in stock price, also was because of converting WGN America into a cable channel. (This was from Wikipedia)

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when they say "merge" with another group are they talking about straight out buying another company or about merging the two and having it publicly traded (like what Hearst-Argyle was before it was taken private)

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when they say "merge" with another group are they talking about straight out buying another company or about merging the two and having it publicly traded (like what Hearst-Argyle was before it was taken private)

 

I interpreted their statement as claiming they were sellers, not buyers.

 

The fact they are selling and not buying when everyone pegged the group as super healthy is what's most alarming here.

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This is a complete head scratchier for me. Cox is an incredibly healthy as a group with strong stations (minus WFXT) and doesn't have significant debt. Sure they might not have the scale like the Nexstars, Sinclairs, and Tegnas of the world, but as a private company they aren't under any sort of Wall Street pressure to build scale. so why sell?

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What’s the problem with Cox? They not making enough money? I know Tribune started the Sinclair ordeal because after severing ties with the newspaper they dropped in stock price, also was because of converting WGN America into a cable channel. (This was from Wikipedia)

No it's not that they weren't making enough money, (as the CEO of Cox Media Group said in the memo obtained by FTVLive) in order for this industry to survive there needs to be scale and by merging with other companies this accomplishes that goal

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I interpreted their statement as claiming they were sellers, not buyers.

 

The fact they are selling and not buying when everyone pegged the group as super healthy is what's most alarming here.

 

Cox is private, meaning access to capital is limited compared to a public company. That's why you saw Hearst do the Argyle merger in the mid-90s too.

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For the record, Cox will continue to operate its radio stations and print holdings.

 

But if Cox gets out of television, its just a surprise on my end. Cox built WSB Atlanta and WHIO Dayton from scratch so its hard to see both stations with a different owner.

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For the record, Cox will continue to operate its radio stations and print holdings.

 

But if Cox gets out of television, its just a surprise on my end. Cox built WSB Atlanta and WHIO Dayton from scratch so its hard to see both stations with a different owner.

 

 

What's so weird about this is that Cox was in the process of merging the WSB and AJC newsrooms. Why sell when you were already going through this merger process?

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For the record, Cox will continue to operate its radio stations and print holdings.

 

But if Cox gets out of television, its just a surprise on my end. Cox built WSB Atlanta and WHIO Dayton from scratch so its hard to see both stations with a different owner.

Money talks! Takers for the radio stations and newspapers would be few compared to the TV holdings, and ABC and Fox outlets in top ten markets don't come up for sale every day...

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Okay, this is totally out of left field. I think my thoughts have been echoed by pretty much everyone here...I'm at a loss for any sort of reasoning to do this.

 

Guess we get to sit back and hope they think the offers through...

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For the record, Cox will continue to operate its radio stations and print holdings.

 

But if Cox gets out of television, its just a surprise on my end. Cox built WSB Atlanta and WHIO Dayton from scratch so its hard to see both stations with a different owner.

 

For the record, Cox still has Cox Cable. So they’re not getting out of TV entirely.

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1) Goodbye WSB mega-dominance

2) Perhaps I shouldn't find this so funny, but I find this hilarious considering Cox, in the grand scheme of media things, just bought stations a few years ago.

Depending upon who the new owner is, WSB may still dominate the Atlanta TV ratings even under new ownership

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This actually was some time coming. Cox is smart as hell to get out of television while they still can (and their radio group may not be that far behind).

 

Only thing that’s a bit surprising is that Cox appointed market managers in Orlando, Tulsa and Jacksonville to oversee both their radio and TV stations late last year. But in retrospect, that also did smell of cost-cutting.

1) Goodbye WSB mega-dominance

Good grief. People will still watch WSB out of mere habit alone, regardless of the owner.

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  • CircleSeven changed the title to Cox sells majority TV interest to Apollo

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