- Former Vice President and global warming crusader Al
Gore stands to make close to $50 million when the TV channel he co-founded
goes public with an Initial Public Offering.
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- Current TV, which debuted in August 2005, has been billed
as "television for the Internet generation" of tech-savvy 18-to-34-year-olds,
and allows viewers to contribute much of its content.
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- http://news.newsmax.com/?K6IR.qnh7tCOawa-HAD2BrCAD3yftJRA
K&http://w3.newsmax.com/a/jul06/?s=al&promo_code=46B7-1
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- But it currently is available in only about 19 million
U.S. homes, and has lost $31.5 million over the last three years, Ron Grover
discloses in BusinessWeek.
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- Current Media, Current TV's parent company, hopes to
raise $100 million in a public offering it filed on Jan. 28. Some of the
money raised will go to lenders, who include a few major Democratic Party
fundraisers.
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- "Something about this deal just doesn't sit right
with me," Grover observes.
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- He notes that Gore and co-founder Joel Hyatt not only
will take "piles of cash," but they also collect "hefty
salaries for a company that hasn't shown a profit in three years - taking
down $491,677 apiece last year in cash."
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- Gore and Hyatt also collected $550,000 bonuses for, in
Gore's case, helping get the company new affiliate agreements and putting
together a management team. The two currently receive $600,000 a year in
salary and can collect additional bonuses.
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- "What really sticks out to me," Grover writes,
is that Gore and Hyatt, "who jumpstarted the company with a broken-down
Newsworld International channel they bought for $70.9 million, will have
the kind of hammer-lock control over the company decried by shareholder
rights activists and many of the same unions that supported Gore for years."
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- Gore and Hyatt will control all of the company's B shares,
which give them 10 votes for every vote of a common shareholder with a
Class A share, according to the filing.
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- The company hasn't yet set a price per share for its
IPO, but Grover cites one estimate of between $13 and $15 per share, making
Gore's 3.7 million shares worth more than $48 million.
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