Current TV, the network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, was sold for about $500 million to Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based cable-news channel, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.The proceeds represent an eightfold increase from the $60 million Gore and his partners paid for its predecessor in 2004, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the terms are private. Gore, chairman, and Joel Hyatt, a co-founder and chief executive officer, announced the sale today in a statement, without providing financial terms.“We are proud and pleased that Al Jazeera, the award- winning international news organization, has bought Current TV,” they said in the statement.Al Jazeera will replace existing shows with its own this year, according to a statement from the buyer. The move expands its U.S. footprint beyond the pay-TV providers that carry the programming. Current TV, a news and opinion channel, reaches almost 60 million U.S. homes. Al Jazeera’s English network was started in 2006 and reached 250 million households in 130 countries, according to its website.“Current Media was built based on a few key goals: To give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling,” Gore and Hyatt said in the statement. “Al Jazeera, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us.”
Cash Flow
Stan Collender, a spokesman for Al Jazeera with Qorvis Communications LLC, said the company declined to comment on the price. He said Al Jazeera in the U.S. is carried by seven companies and reaches 4.7 million households.The new channel will be based in New York and will double Al Jazeera’s U.S. payroll to more than 300, according to the statement.Current TV generated operating cash flow of $16.3 million on revenue of $108 million last year, according to the media research firm SNL Kagan.The $500 million price “sounds high,” said Derek Baine, a cable analyst with SNL Kagan. “It’s a pretty risky deal for them.”The network’s investors included funds controlled by Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle and San Francisco money manager Richard Blum, according to a 2008 Securities and Exchange Commission filing when the company unsuccessfully sought to sell stock to the public. Blum is married to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from San Francisco.The owners introduced Current TV in 2005 after purchasing the network from Vivendi SA.‘Agreement Terminated’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-03/al-jazeera-news-network-acquires-current-tv-to-expand-in-u-s-.htmlHere's How the Fed May Finally Lose Its Power
If the fiscal impasse in Washington is as big of a deal as it's made out to be, somebody forgot to tell investors.Sure, stocks and bonds have shown volatility in recent weeks as politicians bandy their various proposal back and forth.But equity gains for the year have largely held up and the CBOE Volatility Index, a popular gauge of market fear, is at a relatively somnabulant 20.Perhaps more importantly, the government's benchmark debt instrument, the 10-year Treasury, is yielding a paltry 1.74 percent - hardly a level reflecting panic in the streets.So what's to account for the general Wall Street apathy regarding the so-called "fiscal cliff"?You might have to thank all the money-printers at the Federal Reserve.That's the theory, at least from Mohamed El-Erian, co-CEO at the Pacific Investment Management Company, or PIMCO, which manages $1.92 trillion for clients.El-Erian, also the chair of the president's Global Development Council, said central banking largess is helping prevent a market meltdown. (Read More: 'New Normal': Low Growth, Few Jobs, El-Erian Says)
Play VideoPimco's Bill Gross: Fearless 2013 ForecastsWeak performance for stocks and bonds, higher unemployment and roaring gold prices are in store for investors next year, PIMCO's Bill Gross says."A lot of investors have confidence in the Fed," he said during a morning appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "They respect the Fed. If you have an institution that has a printing press in the basement, you respect it."The Fed has willingly used itsbalance sheet to prop up the U.S. economy in the past, but has taken that to unprecedented levels in the past four years. It has created $2.9 trillion of money, using it to buy various government debt instruments - mostly Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities - in an attempt to push liquidity into the financial system.So that's a good thing, right?Maybe not."The Fed has been willing to do more and more and they don't seem to worry about the cost and unintended consequences of what they're doing," El-Erian said in what amounted to a fairly harsh assessment of the U.S. central bank's policies."They're just going forward," he continued. "At some point, however, the Fed is going to become ineffective in terms of what it can do both for markets and for the ultimate policy objectives."http://www.cnbc.com/id/100346542
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