After Dean Singleton’s bid for Irvine-based Freedom Communications was rebuffed in 2003, he told the Los Angeles Times that heirs of company founder R.C. Hoiles “are naive beach boys who have invited the sharks over to swim with them.” Now the “beach boys” have lost the company, but it didn’t happen quite as Singleton suggested: In fact, both the beach boys and the sharks-private equity firms Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners-have been swallowed by a whale-the lender consortium led by JPMorgan Chase (Mike Volpe reports on the ownership change at Freedom, parent of the OC Register, page 1.) Singleton, whose MediaNews Group empire includes the Los Angeles Daily News and other SoCal papers, told the Insider the newspaper industry is in for a wave of consolidation and “we’ll watch with interest” the developments at Freedom: “There were synergies then, there are synergies now.” But even the great consolidator is in no shape to deal today. “We’re stressed as well,” Singleton acknowledged. MediaNews, saddled with even more debt than Freedom ($1 billion), has denied reports that it is heading for a similar pre-packaged bankruptcy. Does Singleton think he dodged a bullet by not buying Freedom at a much higher valuation six years ago? “I didn’t do that, but I did (buy) others and those haven’t worked out” as expected. Singleton borrowed heavily to buy the San Jose Mercury News and other Bay Area papers in 2006 and 2007, just before the newspaper business and the California economy tanked …
Chris Cox ordered it, but unlike other former SEC chairmen, he wasn’t commenting last week on the inspector general’s report of how the agency missed Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme. Still, some commentators saw vindication for the much-maligned Cox, the ex-congressman who has returned to OC as a partner with Bingham McCutchen. The report faulted bungling by SEC investigators and staff, not meddling from the top or lax regulation; Cox had criticized his staff shortly after the scandal surfaced. A startling revelation was that Madoff had predicted to SEC investigators Cox’s appointment as chairman of the agency three weeks before it happened and bragged that he himself was on the short list of candidates …
Eric Anderson (www.digitalpanoramic.com) shot EE RR’s new column mug …
What percent of your revenue goes for R&D? Prez Jim Doti asked at Chapman U’s CEO Summit of medical device executives. “Six and a half percent,” replied Abbot Medical Optics’ Jim Mazzo. “Nine percent,” said Masimo Corp.’s Joe Kiani. “Thirteen percent,” said Edwards Lifesciences’ Michael Mussallem. “Fourteen percent!” Mazzo retorted. All three execs have been involved in Washington’s healthcare debate and predicted Congress will pass some sort of major reform this year.
