Articles for February 17th, 2009

Stanford Financial, The Cricket Implications

Those implications are huge. Sir Allen Stanford is a big cricket fan. He bankrolled $20 million for a winner-take-all all-star match between England and West Indies. The Twenty20, it’s called. Or was called, as the cricket boards have suspended negotiations with Stanford.

posted by Adam McGill | February 17th, 2009 4:17pm | filed under Business, Sports | 4 Comments »

A.H. Belo Real-Estate Sell-Off On Hold

This dovetails with Wick’s previous post. What caught my ear in today’s A. H. Belo conference call (it was a webcast earnings report) was that the company’s plans to sell real estate to shore up its bottom line are on hold, Belo President, Chairman and CEO Robert Decherd said in the earnings call.  Jump for details. (more…)

posted by Dave Moore | February 17th, 2009 3:23pm | filed under Business, Local News, Media | 7 Comments »

Stanford Financial: The Shoe Drops

Apparently the investigation didn’t take long. The SEC has charged the Houston financier with “massive fraud.”

posted by Wick Allison | February 17th, 2009 1:25pm | filed under Hold On To Your Effin Hat | 9 Comments »

Trying To Figure Out The Bachelor

Laura’s likely to weigh in on this later, but I tore away from O’Reilly and Hannity last night long enough to catch The Bachelor “reality” show, where Melissa, the Dallas contestant, is in the finals to win the hand (or some part) of Jason. This show is a Hefnerian Everyman’s fantasy; are women seriously into it? Two observations: The bachelor is super-slick and obviously not to be trusted; when the surviving beauties tell him they “love” him, he just sort of smiles and mumbles. Then, he gets to pork spend a night in the “Fantasy Suite” with not just one, but all three of the ladies (separately). Now, each of these gals has got to know that if he spent the night with her, he likely did so with the others too–don’t they? But when our hero gives one of the lovelies the old heave-ho, she’s torn up because she thought they had the “real thing” going on? Gotta be a script.

posted by Glenn Hunter | February 17th, 2009 10:47am | filed under Entertainment, Local News | 25 Comments »

A. H. Belo Announces Full-Year Results, Confuses Me

The financial wires are playing the company’s announcement straight, comparing its 2008 $33.1 million loss against last year’s $343.6 million loss (which was due to gigantic and mostly non-cash write-downs).  But I have questions. From the company’s statement:

The Company generated $5.9 million and $6.1 million in consolidated EBITDA for the fourth quarter and full year 2008, respectively, excluding the $14.0 million non-cash pension obligation. The aggregate newspaper EBITDA margin excluding all special charges mentioned above was 13 percent in the fourth quarter and 10 percent for the full year.

Full-year revenues were $637.3 million. How is $6.1 million a 10 percent margin? Maybe a FrontBurnervian with a better grasp of corporatese can explain what I’m missing. Regardless, $6.1 million is thin gruel (or working capital) on which to feed $600 million or so of revenues. Which is why the company recently announced a renegotiated credit line of $50 million.

posted by Wick Allison | February 17th, 2009 10:17am | filed under Business, Media | 7 Comments »

Nightmare On Marilla St.? Budget Cut Time At City Hall

The city of Dallas wants to slash its budget in the face of a projected $100 million deficit. Here’s a good place to start: Nix the $165,000 diverted from reserve funds to enforce that People’s Republic no-smoking ordinance they jammed down our gullets. But, hey, Marilla Streeet must be rife with economizing potential. Anybody else got any ideas?

posted by Glenn Hunter | February 17th, 2009 9:43am | filed under Local News | 6 Comments »

Leading Off (2/17/09)

1. Advocates for a statewide smoking ban, like Lance Armstrong, are saying the proposal is a “win-win” for Texas. Others, like Zac Crain, differ: they curse a lot, tug at their beards like madmen, and shoot the finger in Austin’s general direction. Then they take a smoke break to calm the eff out. (Zac Crain jokes = gold.)

2. The George W. Bush library will be as big as a Wal-Mart Supercenter, but without the diversity or commitment to traditional conservative business principles one finds in, say, a Wal-Mart. (There’s a better joke there. I just can’t find it. Li’l help, please.)

3. The Dallas Convention Center hotel project is going along just as planned. You know, the plan being to build an unpopular hotel in a dead part of town during a global economic meltdown. (That joke, however, was spot-on. Nailed it!)

posted by Eric Celeste | February 17th, 2009 8:50am | filed under Local News | 14 Comments »