CBS soon will sell another 50 radio stations in medium- sized mar...
CBS soon will sell another 50 radio stations in medium- sized markets, expecting to close the sales within a year, it said. “By selling these slower growth stations, we can focus on the larger markets that are showing some…
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real growth thanks to the successful reformatting and programming changes we've made,” said CEO Leslie Moonves. The unnamed stations total about $300 million a year in sales, about 15 percent of radio group annual revenue and 10-12 percent of its profit, CFO Fred Reynolds said. CBS already has made overtures to other radio station groups that might be interested, he said. “It’s a little bit fluid,” he said. “There’s a series of buyers that would be interested in this and we've had preliminary discussions with them.” CBS expects to reach agreement quickly, but FCC approval -- which took about eight months when CBS sold off a batch of stations in 10 smaller markets beginning in 2006 -- probably will push the deals’ closings into 2009, he said. “We don’t expect problems with approval, but it just takes a little longer.” CBS believes potential buyers can raise the cash to buy the stations, despite tight credit markets, he said. “With the strategic buyers, there’s a number of ways either through financing or other kind of structured deals where we think we can get the value after tax that we need.” CBS now plans to use the sales’ proceeds to fund stock repurchases, but the cash also could go to fund acquisitions of other higher growth businesses, Moonves said. CBS Q2 sales gained 1 percent from a year earlier to $3.4 billion. Profit increased 1 percent from a year earlier to $408.4 million.