Updated. The stock dived 13.6% today, closing at $11.37 -- down $1.79 a share -- on rapidly worsening investor expectations for quarterly revenue as consumer spending and confidence dim further.Gannett's tumble came as the widely watched Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 733 points; other major indexes fell, too. The Associated Press says: "Stocks fell on a combination of disheartening economic data, including a big drop in retail sales and a Federal Reserve report that said tight credit conditions are hurting businesses across the country."
Gannett's stock has now fallen 25% in the past five days alone, Google Finance says. That pressures CEO Craig Dubow to revise the company's strategy, amid speculation that he's asking newspaper publishers to cut spending as much as 7.5% -- and possibly more.
This reminds me of the warnings you receive when a hurricane is approaching. At first you're not too concerned, just mildly interested. Then when it's barreling down on you, you panic and adopt the "why me" mentality. Well my friends, I got out of Gannett recently while the warnings were clear. Are you going to get out while the roads are still open, or hunker-down and perish in this (now obvious) disaster of a storm coming?...good luck to all, i mean that, but open your eyes!
ReplyDeleteNo, not 7.5 percent cut. The new normal is 15 percent. Incredible.
ReplyDeletexxx Stocks overall are down on new fears over weak consumer spending xxx
ReplyDeleteYou hit a major bitch of mine with that lede i.e. how many fearful people were interterviewed to justify saying that. Is consumer spending weaker today than it was two days ago when there was a 1,000-point rally? In fact, stocks could be down on the dislocation of the Icelandic stock exchange, or the Treasury bail-out package.
Abandon ship weave struck an ice berg. Maybe GM can send us one of their life rafts. LOL
ReplyDeleteBetter start swimming.
Can you say TAKEOVER?
ReplyDeleteSomeone is going to go after Gannett. Hard. I just don't see GCI being able to survive in its current form.
I think the only question is 'Who?'
5:01...one more question, how much?
ReplyDeleteI think a better question might be, "why?" Even Google isn't that dumb.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, the breakup of the chains could be the best thing that could happen. Still-profitable papers (and there still are many profitable papers), beaten down and homogenized by years of chain ownership, are snapped up for pennies on the dollar by local investors. The investors tell managers to make a profit, but give the city a local newspaper again.
On the other hand they could squeeze every last dime out of it, too, that's why I said "could."
How does the company benefit financially when it turns a site over to the Gannett foundation like it did a few years back with one of the smaller Indiana papers? I'm not trying to start a rumor, but rather just asking a question.
ReplyDeleteWait a few weeks, and it will be really cheap. The stock is off 74 percent in the last year, and is outpacing the rest of the newspaper industry in its rate of collapse. The only comfort is that that $437,000 in Christmas bonus and stock gift Craig Dubow got in February is worth a third of what it was then. (source: SEC inside trading report on GCI). They just lined up $1.2 billion in loans so they would have the moeny for this year's stock distribution to the execs, and they can count on the Foundation giving them a stipend like Al Neuharth when they retire. What a disgrace this company has become.
ReplyDeleteGlad I took a Gannett buyout last December -- and that there's just about six weeks of buyout pay and benefits left. I'd be twitchy if I had the 11 months still ahead. Who knows what shape the company would be in about 11 months from NOW?
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those fools who has held onto his Gannett stock (not in the 401(k) ) forever, first bought via payroll deduction as a cub reporter back in the 1970s. A modest $30 a month bought about one share, give or take, each month for several years -- and then accruing dividends rolled over into more stock, and a couple of stock splits came in between, and bingo! I had a modest little egg to add to the overall nest.
Well, the shares that were once worth more than $20K might bring $2,500 today, if I'm lucky.
So I'll just think of it as gone and if, perchance, some miracle happens and it rebounds a bit, I'll treat it like it was a long lost aunt who died and left me some money.
Can anyone say ENRON
ReplyDeleteWhere are these "STOCK HOLDERS" that managment keeps refering to ? They all should be up in arms demanding change along with answers as to why the collapse
ReplyDeleteI think GCI is paying the penalty for the government stopping short-selling during the recent credit crunch. About 20 percent of GCI is held by short-sellers, who are betting the stock will go down, But during the period when short-selling was suspended, they couldn't do their job. Now short-selling is permitted again, the stock is falling like a stone. Only Iceland's stock exchange is showing the same rate of decline as GCI these days.
ReplyDeleteI think GCI is paying the penalty for the government stopping short-selling during the recent credit crunch. About 20 percent of GCI is held by short-sellers, who are betting the stock will go down, But during the period when short-selling was suspended, they couldn't do their job. Now short-selling is permitted again, the stock is falling like a stone. Only Iceland's stock exchange is showing the same rate of decline as GCI these days.
ReplyDelete6:13, you at least will have a loss to write off on your taxes -- and obama is suggesting allowing writeoffs of more money in a given year -- $7k not current $3k if memory serves.
ReplyDelete(note -- i am not seeking to open a political debate here, merely suggesting to a fellow dubow victim that there may be some help in the tax code. i don't want anyone's opinion of whether obama's idea is a good one or a bad one.)
6:13: I guess you can sympathize with Craig Dubow, who has seen the $430,000 in stock he was given earlier this year dwindle to only $110,000.
ReplyDeleteOnly 119k? Damn, I wish I had that problem.
ReplyDelete