[Updated at 4:10 p.m. ET. Shares just closed at $17.12, up 46 cents, or 2.8%, after trading as high as $18.93 -- nearing its 52-week high of $19.69.]
Today's jump follows last week's double-digit rise, plus word Friday that money manager BlackRock had added enough shares to become GCI's second-biggest investor. Sales volume was exceptionally high: 15.8 million shares vs. an average 3.6 million, Google Finance says. GCI's rise is well above the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, both up less than 1%.
Shares of other publishers were higher, too. New York Times Co. closed up 2.7%, and Lee Enterprises closed up 3.6%.
Today's jump follows last week's double-digit rise, plus word Friday that money manager BlackRock had added enough shares to become GCI's second-biggest investor. Sales volume was exceptionally high: 15.8 million shares vs. an average 3.6 million, Google Finance says. GCI's rise is well above the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, both up less than 1%.
Shares of other publishers were higher, too. New York Times Co. closed up 2.7%, and Lee Enterprises closed up 3.6%.
The price runup was precipitated by AOL's $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post. Web companies need original content, and at some point will be looking to buy Gannett's newspapers. Gannett would be smart to sell them to the highest bidder before they are disembowled into oblivion.
ReplyDeleteWhen you look at the companies being bought up lately (HuffPost, Associated Content, TechCrunch, etc.) they all fall into the category of blog network/content farm sites that mostly avoid paying full time salaries for content producers. This is what is desirable for content providers on the web. Quantity and cost over quality and depth. Any suitor looking to acquire Gannett's local properties will not be looking to support dozens or hundreds of full time salaries in a single location when their competitors are paying peanuts for their content.
ReplyDeletegeez you diehards can find a negative spin any time any place. Wow it must be tough going through life like that.
ReplyDeleteFirst two spots are SPOT ON on their analysis, especially the second.
ReplyDeleteNone of these deals involve real estate and presses, which come with newspaper/broadcast acquisition.
Ask yourself: but what happens when the real estate market comes back to life?
A Gannett buyout just may be a precursor to that economic inevitability.
I still think that's what this whole Yahoo thing is about. They want to see if we can cross sell their products. Thus picking up content and the sales force to pay for all the "baggage".
ReplyDeleteI can see a scenario where Yahoo bids for Gannett. The major web brands are starting to recognise that they need to be able to collect content, not just serve it. They need to have control and they don't get that without ownership of the source.
ReplyDelete