Long ago in a galaxy far away I used to follow stock charts. I now consider chartists to be akin to soothsayers in that they always have a perfectly good reason for yesterdays prognostication not to have worked out in the manner forseen. One aspect of charting that does seem to work out rather well is resistance (or support) level. It works because the market has built in standing 'buy if price hits' orders based upon breakup or residual values of a given company.
The Moody's warning seems to have punched a hole in the 'floor' value of the NYT. The previous floor was at $26 but as the chart shows, Pinch has succeeded in taking the NYT into uncharted waters.
He has also succeeded in lowering its market capitalization by $1.6 billion - about 35%. There are very few CEOs who have ever turned in this type of performance in a single year. It takes a very special type of board to hold on for a ride off a cliff.
6 comments:
Unfortunately his family holds control and apparently they are too rich to care.
Much of the old media are run more as vanity companies than as business concerns. You don't expect them to soil themselves by worring about filthy lucre, do you?
FA,
I wonder if the board has exposure to a stockholder suit. Although the Sulzberger's Class B shares have the rights necessary to elect the board, the Class A shareholders should have recourse regarding malfeasance. The Moody's threat provides some interesting ammunition.
If the board doesn't heed the Moody warning then the rest of the trip down is their responsibility.
Btw - Somebody dumped $10 mil in at 11:50 to stop todays skid - after the stock whent below $25 for the first time.
rick - of interest: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/03/06/8370661/index.htm
ex-dem - I can't find the specfic article. What's the title?
rick - sory about the link; the title is "What Price Knight Ridder?"
By Devin Leonard
February 22, 2006: 11:08 AM EST
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