Sorry for the disappearing act, and thanks to everyone who kept the conversation going the past couple of weeks. Let's catch up on the latest Lee hijinks, shall we?
At the annual stockholder meeting on March 10, shareholders approved the reverse stock split. The stock price has hovered around 30 cents since (and the weeks before); the 52-week high was $12.50 and the low was 24 cents. Bigger than that, though, CFO Carl Schmidt said the company will reduce costs by more than $100 million. (Via e-mail tip)
The St. Louis Newspaper Guild reports that Lee's operating profit is 20 percent. Remember that when you have to take your unpaid time off. Capital Times Co. also is pretty profitable. (Via e-mail tip)
The New York Times is selling its jet. It's generating a lot more press than Lee's jet did. They're asking $9.5 million for the 1997 Dassault Falcon. Lee had a 13-seat 2006 Cessna 560XL Citation Excel. (The Swiss Air Force has a few of them too.) Lee's plane is now registered to Blackwell Aviation in Davenport. Lee's plane should have been worth more than $6 million.
What else did I miss?
Friday, March 13, 2009
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4 comments:
Correct me if I am wrong, but even if Lee reverse splits its stock, the company's market share ($12.5 M) will still be below the minimum required for listing ($15M) on the New York Stock Exchange? And if institutions won't hold a delisted stock, what does that mean?
It means Lee's stock price will be doomed to the basement until it can find a charitable benefactor willing to snap up the cheap stock and push its market cap up.
Any papers using corporate fonts? Watch for regional features departments to cut costs at other newspapers. I guarantee another round of layoffs to consolidate production at a small number papers like St. Louis.
And the St. Louis union members just voted in favor of furloughs because they thought it was going to prevent layoffs. I know, didn't seem like a smart move to me, either.
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