Friday, April 6, 2007

$300 million investment in old economy biz

Here's an interesting investing question -- would you risk $300 million of your own money to buy an "old economy" stock with a business that's going downhill thanks to the Internet?

That's what Sam Zell, a real estate mogul, did recently by buying the Tribune Company, owner of the LA Times.

At what point are troubled companies a true "value" investment and when are they low-priced for good reason?

Newspapers are losing readership and advertising dollars to the Internet. This is due to a number of factors -- online news sources are more up to date and convenient. People's demand for local news isn't really great enough to justify an extensive staff of reporters for local news, and they can't afford to send reporters all over the world as in the old days.

I believe that's it's also partly because major newspapers in this countries are secretly aiming to destroy this country, and many intelligent people realize that they're anti-American, though few realize how consciously many newspaper editors and reporters are actively working to bring down freedom and capitalism.

But that's also true of TV journalism, which is not so much on the decline, though I think eventually it will go down the tubes. CNN and Fox will supply all national and international news and the local news teams will cover fires, car crashes and mayor news conferences.

Yet many businesses have been on the decline for years, but still manage to make money, such as railroads. Maybe Zell has a plan to revolutionize the newspaper industry as Nucor did for steel at a time when every other U.S. steel company was losing to competition in Germany, Japan and South Korea.

It can be better to pay a low price for a declining but still viable business than a high price for an expanding business.