Fisher hostile take-over thwarted: is this good or bad?

 We're not sure if, ultimately, this is good news or what, but Fisher Communications' (KOMO KOMOTV, KVI Star 101) shareholders elected two of their own to the board, and two from hedge funders who wanted to take over and sell off the deeply troubled company.

The two interlopers were put forward by Connecticut's FrontFour Capital whose co-founder David Lorber already sits on Fisher's board. Two other FF choices were defeated, preventing a deadly majority

It's good news if you love live & local corporate media ownership, but probably bad if you hoped the company - especially the sagging radio sector- might be changing for the better any time soon.

Lorber scared hell out of everybody when he tried to wangle a sale in December to a Canadian company Huntingdon Real Estate Investment Trust where he's a top shareholder.

The board showdown has damped down the uncertainty around Fisher Plaza, and probably means teevee-centric, radio-intolerant CEO Colleen Brown's job is safe for for a while. (Still can't figger out how, why that might be- which unnatural acts and to whom, you ask? Got us...)

Many KOMO radio staffers have been in a deep malaise of late, as the company has been flapping in the flux of the possibilities of the annual board meeting.

Now that they've been granted a modicum of stability, will management stand-up straight and manage the radio stations, or will the same not-so benign neglect continue?

We stopped long ago trying to figure out Fisher management "strategies."

Maybe this time we'll be favorably surprised. (And oh yeah, maybe the Mariners will make it to the Super Bowl).

Comments

[Ray]

Strategy? What strategy? Radio no longer drives our culture as it once did during the hey days of KJR and rock and roll. TV has the same challenge since the three networks have hundreds of challengers, they no longer set the cultural tone.

Both the TV and radio parts of Fisher (and most other broadcast companies) are going through the motions of providing "content" but no one wants (or perhaps can figure out) how to make them viable as community leaders.

No one wants to invest in innovation. The risks are too high.

[joanie]

If cable rates keep going up, local TV might see a rebirth. Just sayin'...

[JimF]

KUOW FM RADIO FIRES WEATHER MAN WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT BAD MATH TEACHING AT THE DUB: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2011/05/no-more-weather-on-kuow-weekday.html

[Pete]

Joanie, a not small number of people would sell their kids before they gave up their teevees. Which, today, means cable teevee.

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy had it right back in the day. Television is the drug of the nation.

[Cueburner]

I wouldn't really call this a win for the old line Fishers since they only got one new board member elected and the dissident's got two new members seated. One of the two Fisher "favorites" was a board member who was reelected. He was an odds on favorite to win and even the dissident's didn't seem to have an objection to him.

The message from the election is that this is not the time to sell the company, but it strikes me that this also puts management on alert to pay more attention to the operation and bottom line.

[what-EVER]

Thanks for sharing this. So far, Fisher has not notified Shareholders of the election outcome.