Will Mel yell AOL?
Karmazin coy about his future at Viacom
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"If I were not at this company, I think these are extraordinary assets and strong managers," Karmazin told an investor-packed ballroom at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia media conference in Gotham.
Karmazin's contract is up next year. Chairman-CEO and majority owner Sumner Redstone can restructure the board in March. The company has maintained that new contract talks will start in earnest at the end of this year, and Wall Street has been searching for clues to the mindset of the two men and the tenor of their relationship, which hasn't always been warm and fuzzy.
Karmazin was bullish on ad revenue, noting brisk pacings this summer and fall. He said the uptick goes deeper than political advertising or strong comparisons from last year. He said Viacom plans to use its loads of cash to buy back stock or make acquisitions.
In other news from the Goldman Sachs conference:
- Walt Disney chairman-CEO Michael Eisner played down reports of a possible marriage of ABC News and CNN, saying he "would not rate this (combo) as more than 50-50 at best."
He reaffirmed the Mouse is trying, reluctantly, to sell the Anaheim Angels and Mighty Ducks and said it would consider unloading its large radio group if an opportunity arises that's "really, really to our advantage."
He predicted strong, double-digit earnings-per-share growth in Disney's current 2003 fiscal year that started on Tuesday.
- The future ownership of Liberty Media and Comcast-owned home shopping leader QVC may be up for discussion.
Liberty Media executive VP and chief operating officer Gary Howard hinted at a possible "change of ownership structure," at the market-leading shopping network when the next trigger date for the two companies' put-call options on each other's shares comes up in February.
Liberty owns 44% of QVC. Under the put-call agreement, if neither side wants to buy out the other, they must agree on a sale of the entire venture.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was tight-lipped about any possible cable program asset disposals in the wake of its soon-to-close multibillion-dollar merger with AT&T Broadband. In addition to QVC, Comcast owns valuable stakes in E! Entertainment Television, the Golf Channel and Outdoor Life Network. A Comcast spokesman said the company intends to keep its programming assets after the AT&T merger.
- News Corp. on Tuesday clinched a deal to buy Italian pay TV group Telepiu from Vivendi Universal for n900 million ($887 million) in cash and assumed debt.
This is a key disposal in the French media giant's planned $11.7 billion rummage sale. It's a triumph for Rupert Murdoch, who was clearly thrilled by the monopoly potential of merging Telepiu with Stream, the rival pay TV platform he owns with Telecom Italia. The new company will be called Sky Italia.
"We seek to turn this asset into one of the most profitable television platforms this company has ever created," Murdoch said at the Goldman Sachs media conference, calling Italy a "wealthy, untapped market."
Tom Mockridge, new Sky Italia CEO, said the deal should close in December.
In related news, Viv U is planning to up its 39% stake in Gallic cinema group UGC to 55% after French bank BNP Paribas exercised a put option forcing the conglom to buy the extra 16%.
Meanwhile, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the Bronfman family has sold almost $71 million of Vivendi Universal stock on the open market since mid-August. The Bronfmans, the largest shareholder of Viv U, sold a total of 5.78 million shares, bringing their stake down to about 4.8% from 6%.
(Liza Klaussmann in Paris contributed to this report.)
