Media firms and private equity

媒体公司和私人股本

Hot on the press

媒体，热卖中

Nov 2nd 2006 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

Why private-equity investors are so keen to buy media businesses

为什么私人股权投资者如此热情的收购媒体业务

THE internet is generally regarded as a threat to themedia industry as a whole, with newspapers as its first victims. So at firstglance it looks odd that, on October 23rd, at least three private-equity firms reportedly made initial bids to buy the Tribune Group, a conglomerate with a market capitalisation of about $8 billion, which owns three of America's mostprominent newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and ChicagoTribune, as well as several television stations and the Chicago Cubsbaseball team.

互联网通常被看作整个传媒行业的威胁，其中报纸是首当其冲的牺牲品。所以，当你匆匆一瞥10月23日的这则消息时不免感到奇怪，据悉，至少有三家私人股本公司报价收购论坛报业集团，一个市值80亿美元的报业联盟，这个联盟拥有三家美国最显赫的报纸，洛杉矶时报，巴尔的摩太阳报和芝加哥论坛报，同时还拥有几家电视台和芝加哥俱乐部棒球队。

Private-equity firms are showing a keen interest in thewider media, too. Last week Clear Channel, which has 1,100 radio stations and amarket capitalisation of $17 billion, put itself on the block by announcingthat it is “evaluating various strategic alternatives”. The Dolan family istrying to take Cablevision, the cable company it founded, private; and JackWelch, a former boss of GE, reportedly wants to buy the Boston Globefrom its owner, the New York Times Company. Talk of an impending purchase of Bloomberg, a data and news service, was so widespread recently that its ownerand New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, felt obliged to issue a statement toemployees denying it is for sale. There is even speculation that Time Warnerand Viacom, two huge media conglomerates, might become targets.

私人股本公司也对更广泛的媒体表现出喜爱之情。上星期，Clear频道，一家拥有1100个电台并且市值达170亿美元的公司，也打破了人们对它的旧观念，它宣布它正在“评判不同以往的多元化策略计划”。杜兰（Dolan）家族正试图将Cablevision，他们创办的有线电视公司，私有化；通用电气前总裁，杰克·韦尔奇，据悉，想要收购波士顿环球报，这份报纸的老东家是纽约时报公司。还有，令人沮丧的关于数据和新闻服务公司彭博社（Bloomberg）要被卖掉的消息也不胫而走，它的拥有者，也是纽约市长，米歇尔·彭博（Michael Bloomberg），不得不向他的员工发表声明，否认彭博社将被卖掉。甚至有传闻称时代华纳和维亚康姆，这两大媒体联盟也可能成为被收购的目标。

In Europe, VNU, a Dutch media firm, was bought for $11.6billion earlier this year by two American private-equity firms, the Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). The biggest media deal so far thisyear was the purchase by a consortium of five private-equity firms of aSpanish-language broadcaster, Univision, for $13.7 billion. There is much speculation about a fresh bid for ITV, a British television network, for NTL, a cable firm, and for Pearson, owner of the Financial Times and part-owner of TheEconomist—or at least for its Penguin books unit.

在欧洲，VNU，一家荷兰媒体公司，在年初以116亿美元的价格被卖给两家私人股本公司，Carlyle集团和KKR。到目前为止今年最大的媒体（收购）事件是五家私人股本公司购买了一家西班牙语广播公司，Univision，报价137亿美元。还有很多的不完全的消息是关于英国电视网ITV被提供了报价，同样遭遇的还有NTL，一家有线电视公司，还有Pearson，它是金融时报的全部和经济学人的部分拥有者——或者至少是对于其Penguin图书集团来说。

In Australia, where new media rules allow foreign ownership, the Packer family firm has put its media arm, PBL Media, into acompany jointly owned with a private-equity firm, CVC Asia Pacific. Sir TonyO'Reilly's Independent News and Media is taking APN News & Media private inconjunction with Providence Equity Partners, a private-equity firm.

在澳大利亚，新的媒体规范允许外资拥有所有权，Packer家族公司已经将其媒体业务之手，PBL传媒，伸向一家由私人股本公司合伙拥有的公司，CVC亚太。TonyO'Reilly爵士的独立新闻与传播机构正要将它（旗下）私营的APN新闻与传播公司转让给一家私人股本公司，Providence私人合伙公司。

Managers and shareholders like these deals because theyare frustrated by the public market's valuations of their businesses. The Maysfamily has had enough of watching Clear Channel's share price stagnate;likewise the Chandler clan, which owns 12% of Tribune.

管理者们和股东们喜欢这些并购，因为他们感到公开市场对其业务的定价令人沮丧。Mays家族已经看够了Clear频道那徘徊不前的股价；拥有论坛报业12%股份的Chandler家族集团也有同样的感觉。

Private-equity firms like media companies better than public markets do. Public markets love a growth story. Private equity appreciates cash flow. Radio and television stations and even newspapers throwoff loads of cash, which private-equity firms can borrow against, using thisleverage to repay their equity fast. That is true even of businesses whose cashflow is in long-term decline, such as newspapers, as long as the rate of decline is relatively predictable. The biggest risk in many of the current batch of deals is that the private-equity firms discover the cash-flow modelsto be less predictable than they thought, says Colin Blaydon of Tuck Business School's Centre for the Study of Private Equity and Entrepreneurship.

私 人股本公司比公开市场更看好媒体公司。公开市场喜欢一个成长性的故事。私人股本则偏爱现金流。广播电台和电视台，甚至报纸已经难以获得的现金贷款，但私人 股本公司都可以提供给它们，并凭借这种活动让其股本获得快速的回报。即使这项业务的现金流在长期看来是下滑的，比如报纸，只要下滑率是相对来说可预期的 （就没什么关系）。时下这些大量的收购行为的最大风险是私人股本公司发现其现金流模式比原来料想的可预期性要差，杜克商学院私营企业和企业家研究中心的Colin Blaydon说。

Whilst some funds, such as Providence Equity Partners andElevation Partners, have long focused on media, some of the big, generalistfunds have lately been hiring expertise. Carlyle, a possible buyer of Tribune,recently recruited Norman Pearlstein, a former editor-in-chief of Time Inc, tohelp identify suitable targets.

与此同时，一些基金，比如储备资产联盟（Providence Equity Partners）和Elevation Partners投资公司都凯觎媒体行业已久。一些规模大、全能型的基金已经开始聘请专业人才。Carlyle，论坛报业集团的可能买家，最近聘请了Norman Pearlstein，一名前任的时代公司的总编来帮助确定合适的目标。

Private equity may mean better management. Since CoxCommunications, a cable firm, went private in 2004, it has benefited from thelack of both short-term market pressure and Sarbanes-Oxley-related interference. KKR has installed a highly-regarded former GE executive to runthe hitherto poorly managed VNU. But cutting costs can be hard. ThePhiladelphia Inquirer'snew private-equity owners found themselves facing apossible strike after they tried to lay off workers. America's toughrestrictions on cross-ownership of different media businesses may pose afurther obstacle to restructuring.

私人股本可能意味着更好的管理。自从电信公司Cox Communications在2004年进行了私有化改造之后，它已经从短期市场压力和萨班斯·奥克斯利法案①相关干预这两方面的共同缺失中获得了好处。KKR已经安排了一位商誉更佳的前通用电气高管来运营在管理方面逐步衰退的VNU。但是削减成本是艰难的。Philadelphia Inquirer'snew私人股本公司的所有者发现他们面临试图裁员而引发的罢工。美国在不同媒体业务的混合所有权方面还存在棘手的限制因素，这也可能会使更加残酷的重组变局出现。

Private equity's biggest advantage today is its access tovast quantities of debt, on what old-time bankers might regard as recklessly generous terms. They can borrow at far higher multiples to earnings than thepublic stockmarket is willing to sustain. That makes it hard for publiccompanies to compete against private-equity buyers.

私人股权公司最大的优势在于他们可以承受巨额债务的压力，这对于过去的银行家是不可想象的事情。他们可以承受比上市的公司的多好几倍的资产负债率，从这一点看上市公司很难和他竞争。

It's a nice position for private equity, but alsodangerous. Mr Bloomberg is said to be convinced that private-equity isoverpaying, and that when they later face pressure to deliver returns, theywill slash jobs to boost short-term profits. He does not want that fate forBloomberg. Other media owners may be less troubled by such prospects and more interested in cashing in on the seller's market of a lifetime.

对 于私人股本公司来说，这是一个有利的位置，但是也是危险的，据说，彭博先生相信私人股本公司出价过高，当他们后来面临收入降低的压力时，就会靠裁员来改善 短期利润，这不是他想看到的结果。而其他媒体所有者可能很少持这种看法而担忧，他们更关心卖方市场中以生命周期计算的现金回报。