6% of A.H. Belo Series A stock bought by Brian Ferguson, who tried to buy Rocky Mountain News last month

by Mike Orren

Picked up on this little tidbit via the DMNcuts blog:

SEC filings reveal that on March 6, a group consisting of Austin businessman Brian Ferguson; Abilene investment fund SoftVest LP, and Midland-based Anthem Holdings bought 1,265,593 shares of A.H. Belo Series A stock. That's the newspaper business that's in the process of major layoffs right now. And that's a hefty 6% of the company's Series A common stock pool.

That wouldn't be that interesting -- after all, most of the power is in the Series B pool, which is controlled by the Decherd / Moroney clan -- if Ferguson wasn't also the leader of an investment group that tried and failed to buy the dying Rocky Mountain News last month.

Developing...

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Anonymous

jtmbls, says:

I wonder if he is related to the Fergusons of publishing lore...

Anonymous

8 months ago
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paareader, says:

Rick's Cabaret is worth almost twice as much as A.H. Belo - the owner of the Dallas Morning News and 3 other papers. The market values a chain of strip clubs to be worth twice as much as the Dallas Morning News.

A. H. Belo Corporation (NYSE: AHC) headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a distinguished newspaper publishing and local news and information company that owns and operates four daily newspapers and a diverse group of Web sites. A. H. Belo publishes The Dallas Morning News, Texas' leading newspaper and winner of eight Pulitzer Prizes since 1986; The Providence Journal, the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the U.S. and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes; The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA), serving southern California's Inland Empire region and winner of one Pulitzer Prize; and the Denton Record-Chronicle. The Company publishes various specialty publications targeting niche audiences, and its partnerships and/or investments include the Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium and Classified Ventures, owner of cars.com. A. H. Belo also owns direct mail and commercial printing businesses.

Rick's Cabaret International, Inc. (NASDAQ: RICK) operates upscale adult nightclubs serving primarily businessmen and professionals that offer live adult entertainment, restaurant and bar operations. The company owns, operates or licenses adult nightclubs in New York City, Miami, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis and other cities under the names "Rick's Cabaret," "XTC," "Club Onyx" and "Tootsie's Cabaret". Sexual contact is not permitted at these locations. Rick's Cabaret also owns the adult Internet membership Web site, couplestouch.com; a network of online adult auction sites under the flagship URL naughtybids.com; ED Publications, the national trade magazine and convention for the adult nightclub industry; and Storerotica, the national trade magazine and convention for the adult product and intimate apparel industries. Rick's Cabaret common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol RICK.

Anonymous

8 months ago
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Travis Bush, says:

Verified

8 months ago
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Mike Orren, says:

Lest you think we're just not paying attention, I found this one, like the recent AIDS cure spam, humorous enough to let stand.

It reminds me of one of my favorite lines from the documentary American Pimp: In it, legendary pimp Fillmore Slim expounds that "[a certain sexual organ] sells when corn and cotton won't."

Staff

8 months ago
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Jason Rice, says:

Spam as a statement can be magical.

I pondered complaining about it but then Trav took the mickey out of it and I have to back you on the appreciation of cluelessness as broader expression of the medium.

I also think I got a "trader alert" on that a while back - wedged between two CaNAD1-eN Pharmacy notices.

Verified

8 months ago
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alexander troup, says:

It is kind of like smelling the coffee when it is bad and then you smell paper when it gets hot and burns.....while this is really technology and the 21 we are now entering....A/T, Nasa and the news..