Nassau Broadcasting is next in the list of Company Profiles, because it has been in the news this week. The company has failed to meet its credit obligations, and Goldman Sachs has taken over control of the company.
The profile is available [Here]
The Reader’s Digest version of this story is that back in the late 1980s, a guy in Princeton New Jersey bought up two local radio stations and got into the radio business. Over the next 10 or so years, he slowly acquired a few more New Jersey radio stations and kept his company a private company.
As the stock bubble of the late 1990s swept America, he was talked into going for the “Big Time” by the Investment Banking sharks (the same ones who have brought the world to the brink of economic collapse).
In 2000, paperwork was filed for Nassau to “go public”, but was withdrawn after the Clinton Era stock bubble had collapsed – and buyers in new IPOs started to actually read the financial statements in the SEC filing documents.
In 2004, Goldman Sachs and several Private Equity funds talked the owner into buying up a series of 32 small market radio stations in New England for a total of $48 million. The low price per station (just over $1 million) is an indication that those stations had little potential to ever become profitable.
In 2006, the company then decided on the idea to create a regional network of commercial Classical Music radio stations.
Well, that idea didn’t work out too well.
Inquiring minds would like to know – are TARP funds going to resolve this toxic asset on Goldman Sach’s books?