Carlyle Group Possible Buyer of Knight-Ridder

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http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/13393390.htm

An article in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer discussed firms that have expressed an interest in buying Knight-Ridder. One of the prospective buyers is the Carlyle Group. This is important because Knight-Ridder has been one of the leading sources of real investigative journalism at the national level, which has embarashed the Bush Administration.

Excerpt of article:

"Last week, David Rubenstein, a cofounder of the Carlyle Group, of Washington, said that his firm also considered newspapers such as Knight Ridder's "attractive" at recent prices, but that he was not interested in going much higher. Yesterday, Carlyle officials declined to comment on whether the firm had made a formal expression of interest.

A consortium including Blackstone Group L.P., of New York, Providence Equity Partners, of Rhode Island, and the New York firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. met last Friday's deadline to express interest and seek additional information about buying Knight Ridder. Blackstone and Providence are diversified investors that have bought into newspapers before: They purchased a stake last year in Freedom Communications Inc., which owns dailies including California's Orange County Register.

Texas Pacific Group, of Fort Worth, Texas, also gave Knight Ridder notice it wanted a closer look. Texas Pacific has been a major investor in turnaround candidates, including airlines (Continental, AmericaWest), retailers (Burger King, Petco), and moviemaker Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)."

Note - the rest of the article does not discuss the Carlyle Group.

There's not even an attempt to hide their machinations.

troll investors to fuck with your overall financial future.

KR was our last REAL news organization. The rest just PLAY at it for show to make the public believe there is still a watchdog on our government, when it's really just another propaganda tool for BushInc.

be referred to simply as The Corporation . . . or Daddy . . .

and NOT Knight Ridder! One of the only ones left with any ethics!

oh god, soon they WILL own everything......

some of the same Corporate Players as Carlyle. It's all a big happy family these days. A small group of BushBot owners who own companies that they give different names. Shell Companies, Holding Partners, LLC's and Reits.

:crazy: Looks like Knight Ridder is dead unless a liberal consortium can come up with some bucks...and I'm not sure we have any liberal consortiums who can go up against these "players" for BushCo.

..in June, 2004.



http://www.freepress.net/news/article.php?id=3930

*gulp*

;)

Timesco stock has been hammered down to half its value of two years ago. After the Judy Miller fiasco, Art Sultzberger is under intense pressure to step down as Chair, and has few defenders at the paper. http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/051212roco04

Carlyle Group already has an outrider on the Timesco Board. Guess who's on the Board of Directors of The "liberal" New York Times since mid-2001? William E. Kennard of the Carlyle Group. Yes, that Carlyle Group:

http://www.nytco.com/company-directors-wekennard.html

William E. Kennard

Board of Directors

William E. Kennard was elected to the Board of Directors of The New York Times Company in 2001.

Mr. Kennard joined The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, in May 2001 as a managing director in the global telecommunications and media group. Before joining The Carlyle Group, Mr. Kennard served as Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from November 1997 to January 2001.

Mr. Kennard served as the FCC's general counsel from December 1993 to November 1997. Before serving in the government, Mr. Kennard was a partner and a member of the board of directors of the law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand.

Mr. Kennard is also a member of the board of directors of Nextel Communications, Inc. and Dex Media, Inc.

Committee Memberships: Nominating & Governance (Chairman) and Finance


Board Members
http://www.nytco.com/company-directors.html



What do you think - looks to me like another "attractive" acquisition target.

I'm so frikkin' sick and tired of the LIBERAL $$ sitting on the sidelines while Rome burns.

THAT is the latte liberal caucus... fuck them. Or are they such dinosaurs that they haven't figured out that the press is nothing but a propaganda tool for the rightwingers?

:kick:

By the way, Mr. Soros is/was a Carlyle investor.

We're going to have to build our own media, from the bottom up. We can't wait for a flock of angels. Guess we're already doing that.

"Guess we're already doing that." -absolutely right on both counts. Thank heavens for the Internets!

Actually, I probably read more press accounts from more sources than ever before. I'm infinitely better informed and all the more critical of the MSM for it.

TV News literally makes me nauseous and pissed off. Not a good feeling.

allow The Carlyle Group to buy Knight Ridder. P-R-A-V-D-A anyone? The shilling is bad enough as it is. Can you imagine how much Propaganda will be FLOWING from this administration if they own Knight Ridder?

n/t

Oh, man, that would SUCK BIG TIME!!! x(

It was nice to see Jon Stewart publicly recognize the investigative reporting of Knight-Ridder's Washington Bureau on the Daily Show last week. He said they were the only ones to get the Iraq story right, which is true. Their articles in 2002 and 2003 all proved to be true, and they completely conflicted with what the Administration was saying at the time. That is a good reason for "the powers that be" to want a newspaper chain broken up.

KKR is another prospective buyer. They used to have a history of selling companies in pieces to get the most cash out of them.

I can't even begin to tell you how disgusting those two papers are to me.