Dark skies for Cumulus
Bankruptcy storm looming over radio giant
AS turnarounds go, this one is a disaster. At radio giant Cumulus Media, things have gone from bad to worse. A quick look at the stock price tells the tale.
When former Chief Executive Lew Dickey exited in September 2015, the stock was already an anemic $5.45. On Friday, Cumulus shares closed at 52 cents.
Back in the halcyon days of early 2014, Cumulus stock was trading at $64.04. Now things are in tatters, and a Nasdaq delisting looms — as does a possible bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, current CEOMaryBerner keeps receiving bonus payments, which are now being paid on a quarterly basis instead of the typical end-of-year cycle, perhaps learned from her two bankruptcies with Readers Digest.
“Cumuluscontinues to maketremendous progress in our multi-year turnaround, having reached a financial inflection point driven by ratings share growth,” the company told OnTheMoney.
Cumulus owns hundreds of radio stations and syndication company Westwood One, and competes with the likes of iHeart and CBS Radio, now in the hands of Entercom.
Now private equity firm Crestview Partners has adopted a poison pill to stop an activist from coming in as it staves off bankruptcy. For the year 2016 (a presidential election year), Cumulus reported that net revenue fell 2.3 percent while adjusted Ebitda — earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization — was off 20.6 percent from a year earlier.
Radio-business watchers are intrigued to hear that former CEO Dickey has raised a $209 million investment fund. Dickey came off the Cumulus board in March.
There are so many bold-faced names headed to the Cote d’Azur next weekend for the 64th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity that it might be hard to bump into any advertising executives.
Attendees will have plenty of opportunities to make their Facebook friends jealous all week.
The boozy, rosé-fueledd eventevent kicking off Saturday featuresures poppop star DemiLovato (pictured) talking with YouTube’s global headad ofof content, Su-Susanne Daniels about global trends in popular culture.
Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon will talk about his advertising and music company, Syn, and a partnership with ad agency BBDOChina. Hearst Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles nabbed super model Karlie Kloss s for her annual sit-down on the main stage.
Bringing things back downtoearth is commu-nications supremo Rich- ard Edelman, whowill interview civil rights activ-vist Jesse Jackson.
On a more unusual note, there will be a session onon why male circumcision is becoming more popular inn Af-Africa, while Spotify will bebe psychoanalyzing burlesquesque dancer Dita Von Teese e’s music collection.
Guggenheim Partnerss ChiefChief ContentContent Officer Dirk Smillie got so interested in the firm’s forefather, Harryarry Guggenheim, that he quit his job to write a book about him, sources told On thehe Money.Money.
Smillie, a former senioror writer with Forbes, has been with the fund for the past six years. The book is believedelieved toto bebe the first on the super-rich investor who was also a co-founder of Newsday with his third wife, Alicia Patterson. Guggenhe Guggenheim, who died in 1971, was friends with seven presidents and with aviator Charles Lindbergh, and was a former amambassador to Cuba. TheThe boobook is expected to reveal newinformation about Harry Guggenheim’s battles with NewYorkParks Commissioner Robert Moses and architect Frank Lloyd Wright over the creationatio of the Guggenheim Museum on East 89th Street. NNew York hotelier Ian Schrager says his new Lower East Side Public Hotel may be his best yet and delivers luxury forfo all at budget prices. It’s a new build in New York, where the hotel veteran and co-cfounder of Studio 54 createda the boutique hotel conceptc with Morgans Hotel in 1984. He opened the popular Paramount in 1990, and The HudsonH a year later. All of thoseth hotels were renovations. “This is really the first time I’ve really done what I wanted to do. I’ve beenb working on this four years,” Schrager, 70, told Julie EarleEarl Levine. TheTh challenging part for Schrager was keeping the luxury Lower East Side property “very relevant, compelling,pell innovative and edgy.” GuestsGu can expect some surprises,prise starting with self check-in, and ththere is no room service — guestsguest are required to go downstairs and buybu what they want. The design is super chic, with restaurants,tauran lush gardens and, in the rooms, floor-to-ceiling windows. The starting price is $150 a room.