Simmering Tronc boardroom battle exploding
THE feud between Tronc Chairman Michael Ferro and his onetime ally, biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, erupted into open warfare on Thursday — with the Los Angeles Times getting caught in the middle.
Tronc is accusing Soon-Shiong of adding to his Tronc shares with unauthorized insider trading and engaging in a media campaign to “coerce” Tronc into selling him the LA Times.
Soon-Shiong’s side claims Ferro, an early investor in Soon-Shiong’s NantHealth, is trying to get Tronc to buy back Ferro’s personal shares at a premium price.
“Dr. Soon-Shiong informed Mr. Ferro that this proposal was improper and that he wanted nothing to do with it,” John Quinn, SoonShiong’s lawyer, said in a letter to Tronc’s legal eagles, according to Bloomberg
At Tronc, Soon-Shiong is said to own 26.7 percent of the shares, second only to Ferro’s stake, which the board authorized to go as high as 30 percent.
“Dr. Soon-Shiong has repeatedly traded in [T]ronc stock without first satisfying the requirements of [T]ronc’s insider trading policy,” Tronc lawyers wrote in a letter to Quinn.
At its June 2016 IPO, NantHealth — the latest biotech company founded by Soon-Shiong — traded at $14 a share, but has since slumped, closing Thursday at $5.42.
Soon-Shiong joined the Tronc board as vice chairman last May after buying his large stake — at the invitation of Ferro.
The relationship appears to have soured during Gannett’s failed Tronc takeover. Tronc’s board refused to put Soon-Shiong up for renomination at the April 18 shareholders meeting.
Hearst awards
Hearst, which only two years ago flew stars from the ABC drama “Scandal” to the glamorous White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, will be keeping a much lower profile this year.
They may send a donation but are still “working out the logistics” of how to get its people to attend, according to Hearst Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles. That’s because the company is holding a major offsite meeting in Texas the same weekend as the April 29 WHCA dinner.
The dinner, which traditionally mixes celebrities, politicians and journalists, has been rocked by the strained relationship between the Trump White House and the media.
President Trump is skipping the event.
On a happier note, Coles spoke with Media Ink shortly after Hearst handed out 15 in-house awards.
Her former title, Cosmopolitan, snagged two, for Best Design and Best Use of Social Media.
Lest anyone think Coles had her finger on the scale, she reminded Media Ink that Arianna Huffington and New York Magazine Editor-in-Chief Adam Moss handled the judging.
Good Housekeeping won for best public interest story for its “A Question Every Mother Should Ask” piece.
Popular Mechanics won two, for Best Reported Feature/Profile on Conspiracy Theorists and Cover of the Year for a three-dimensional cover that appears to show a solider emerging from a dark cover sporting night vision goggles.
Coles pledged to still support the WHCA dinner with a donation, which goes toward journalism scholarships.
Cramer headache
CNBC host Jim Cramer may have a new thorn in his side at TheStreet, his struggling financial news site.
Investor Cannell Capital has been snapping up shares of the stock once held by Raging Bull Capital and now has amassed the second-largest holding in the company — behind only Cramer — with about 9.9 million shares.
In a March 31 letter to TheStreet Chairman Larry Kramer, J. Carlo Cannell said he wants the company to appoint to its board Al Angrisani, a turnaround expert who authored the book “Win One for the Shareholders!”
While Cannell said he “applauds” the board’s recent turnaround efforts, he still wants his man to be seated by Dec. 31. He wants a response by April 11.
TheStreet CEO David Callaway said, “We’re always happy when a longtime shareholder buys more shares and applauds our progress.”
Angelo rising
New York Post publisher Jesse Angelo on Thursday was named News Corp.’s Chief of Digital Advertising Solutions, a new post. In his new gig, Angelo will oversee a new advertising platform to give advertisers a direct way of targeting a large, high-quality audience of potential customers in a trusted environment across News Corp.’s many brands. The platform is expected to launch later this year. Angelo will continue in his jobs as chief executive and publisher of The Post.