RE:If you want to make yourself sick!Hi 20,
This is the kind of smarmy bullshit you'd expect from a couple of vulture capitalists.
Rivett, with his slicked-back hair, is another Gordon Gekko type who will destroy this company in the next three years and they fly off to his private island somewhere. He is a financial engineer who could give a flying fig about journalism and certainly not the content produced by the Toronto Star.
Bitove is in the deal because he brings a name and perhaps some cash and has absolutely no experience running a media company. His dad wanted something for him to keep him off the streets.
Bit-ette wants to play the fortunate first generational card to suggest they have a basis to support "progressive journalism." A week ago they couldn't spell it.
Let's go through the highlight reel:
"What Torstar has, and has had for over 100 years is fantastic content. What they don't have is the platform to deliver it."
Try to unpack this baloney. Fantastic content - has he read the Toronto Star lately? It has been garbage for decades. And what is this special platform that is going to deliver fantastic content to an audience desperate for the news of the day? This is the kind of flimflammery that made Paul Godfrey famous. Try to get them to explain what this platform is without spinning into jargon and bafflegab that is intended to shut down the conversation. Boynton has made an art of spewing this mythical platform garbage to buy time to more fully line his pockets.
"What COVID-19 did to Paul and I was it made our resolve stronger that what the world needs and what Toronto needs and what Canada needs is fact-based journalism and stories based on truth."
What planet did these guys just arrive from? When has Canada or Toronto lacked for fact-based journalism and stories based on truth? This must have come from "Publishing for Dummies - Volume 1" - what to say when you buy a newspaper company. This isn't even drivel - it's embarrassing.
"We want to inspire the journalists and editorial group to continue doing good work without the distraction of having to meet quarterly targets."
What quarterly target do you think journalists and editors prevent them from doing good work? Do you understand what motivates journalists? This is what you'd expect to come from the mouth of Jared Kushner. It's not hard to understand why Jordan was always the wingman because this commentary will leave him open to ridicule in every newsroom in the company.
"For a business that is burning cash and has been burning cash for years now, and in the context of this market with the uncertainties of COVID affecting the topline, we think this is a very full and fair premium."
Gordon Gekko, explaining how he hoodwinked the dimwitted Voting Trust into paying him to take the company off their hands. Play the pandemic big and tell everyone you are taking on enormous risk while picking their pockets. This is neither a full and fair premium and they have replaced one sociopath for another.
"For shareholders like Fairfax, they are taking the cash and it makes sense given the premium that we stretched ourselves to pay."
Read this and try not to gag. Fairfax has enabled this kleptocracy and screwed both their shareholders and the Torstar B shareholders. The only "stretching" is their nose when they spew this nonsense. It is an insult to our intelligence.
"What the company really needs is a lot of love, a more patient approach, and a longer timeline of someone that can look after it for maybe three to five years."
Perhaps the most revealing insight from the entire article. Three to five years? Is this the sound of a patient and long-term steward of Torstar? What this company really needs is competent leadership that knows what the hell it is doing. And what form is this "love" going to take? This is simply an assignation where B shareholders and employees will get screwed by a couple of fast-buck artists who will begin pillaging the company the moment the ink is dry on the sale agreement.
I now need to stick my head in the toilet to clear my mind.
MW