Looks like newspapers are available for purchase with pocket change – if you have humongous pockets

Amazing. The Boston Globe was sold for a negative sales price. The Washington Post is purchased by an individual for his personal portfolio.

New York Times sells Boston Globe for more than 100% loss

The New York Times is selling the Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette along with some other newspapers to the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox for $70M in an all cash deal.

The NYT paid a reported $1.1 billion for the Boston Globe. They paid $295M for the Telegram & Gazette (per the Forbes article listed below).

They retain a $100M pension as part of the sale. (Don’t have a handy link for that.)

That means they paid $1.4B for the 2 papers (let’s ignore a few other properties).  The net proceeds are a negative $30M, calculated at $70M cash received being less than the $100M pension liability they retain. That means they write off more than their purchase price, well over a billion dollars.

Oh, remember I said it was all cash. Pocket change for someone with a reported net worth of $1.5B. Well, at just under 5% of his net worth, maybe that isn’t exactly pocket change. Maybe the better analogy is he bought it for the spare cash in his checking account.

Oh, one more thing. One report says the real estate owned by the Boston Globe is worth almost as much as the purchase price. So if he liquidated the papers the day after the deal closes, sold the real estate and scrapped everything else, he would roughly get his cash back.

For details see:

• Forbes – New York Times Co. Eats Billion-Dollar-Plus Loss in Sale of Boston Globe
• New York Times – New York Times Company Sells Boston Globe
• Fox News – New York Times to sell Boston Globe for $70 million to Red Sox owner

Washington Post purchased by founder of Amazon

The famed Washington Post will be sold by its holding company.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, will buy the newspaper for $250M in an all cash deal. He will own it personally, not through Amazon. He will also take the paper private, so there won’t be any quarterly reporting of sales and net income.

Oh, another all cash deal. Forbes estimates his net worth at $28B. That purchase price is around 1% of his net worth. With his wealth, the Washington Post ticket price is pocket change.

For more info:

• Washington Post –  Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon
• Forbes – Billionaire Jeff Bezos Buys The Washington Post For $250 Mission, Less Than 1% of His Net Worth