In a 10K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, former Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey provided more detail about his upcoming plans with his company Modern Media Acquisition. The company launched an IPO in May and banked $207 Million. It’s expected Dickey will use that money, at some point, to purchase some sort of media company which may, or may not, involve radio. Macquarie Capital is a major investor. Here’s the plan for Modern Media Acquisition, according to the 10K filing…
To focus on media, entertainment and marketing services companies positioned to compete in the new modern media ecosystem. We believe nearly every sector of the media, entertainment and marketing services industries will continue to face significant disruption to their legacy business models as they adapt to technological shifts. We are seeking a target that we believe will be positioned to compete in this new paradigm, whether the company is a traditional media company undergoing changes or a company deploying new technologies in the entertainment space, especially as digital and traditional media ecosystems continue to converge. We believe our strategy leverages our management team’s distinctive background and vast network of industry leaders in the target sectors as well as Macquarie Capital’s relationships and expertise in the broader TMT space.
Emphasis on companies that can benefit from a public listing and greater access to capital. We are seeking a target that we believe will benefit from being publicly traded and will be able to effectively utilize the broader access to capital and the public profile that are associated with being a publicly traded company. In addition, we believe the accelerating shift to the new modern media ecosystem has created a significant opportunity for a new breed of media companies to provide innovative products and services. As such, we believe many companies in the new modern media ecosystem can benefit from increased access to capital.
Businesses with a catalyst for significantly improved financial performance.
We are targeting companies where we believe that our industry expertise and relationships can be used to create opportunities for value creation, whether for acquisitions, capital investments in organic growth opportunities or in generating greater operating efficiencies. We are seeking to identify such opportunities for value creation in evaluating potential business combinations.
Market-leading participant with experienced and motivated management teams that may benefit from enhanced leadership and governance. We are seeking a target that has an established business and market position. While we intend to focus on technology-enabled businesses, we do not intend to seek a target that is pre-revenue or in early stages of development with unproven technologies. Additionally, we are seeking a target with an established management team. To the extent we believe it will enhance stockholder value, we would selectively supplement the existing leadership of the business with proven leaders from our network, whether at the senior management level or at the board level.
Middle-market businesses.
We are seeking a target with an aggregate enterprise value of approximately $500 million to $1.5 billion, determined according to reasonably accepted valuation standards and methodologies. We believe targeting companies in the middle market will provide the greatest number of opportunities for investment and will maximize the collective network of our management team and Macquarie Capital.
This September will be the second anniversary of Lew Dickey ousting at Cumulus. He was pushed out by the Cumulus board while on his honeymoon. Since then, he and his wife had a baby and Dickey has written a book. Several radio executives speculated to Radio Ink that Dickey will not return to the radio business, however, with Lew you just never know. He was in the radio business for many decades and may not like the way things ended for him at his former company.
Do some research before you start to bash Dickey. If I were betting man, I’d bet big on Lew. You people forget that he built a massive radio Empire, employed over 5,000 people, and annual revenue of $1billion..With a capital B!
He took some great assets and turned them into a worthless house of cards.
Dickey is like Frankenstein…he keeps reappearing! Dickey is a spoiled rich gut with ZERO respect or appreciation of people, and their contributions to a company. Witness Cumulus. …We feel bad for any company that Dickey will infest, because he will ruin that company – and hurt people- like he did with Cumulus.
The last thing any media company needs is to be purchased by Lew Dickey. As was amply demonstrated by the Cumulus fiasco, Mr. Dickey’s operating strategy appears to consist almost exclusively of cost-cutting to the point of near extinction. Cumulus became the punchline to every story about terrible places to work, and numerous legendary brands were virtually destroyed during his tenure. Enriching himself appears to be his only goal, and funny enough, he managed to ignore completely his obligation to staff, users of his products, and the industry itself. Cumulus will not survive his ‘vision’ and that’s a shame. A lot of very good people lost jobs because of him.
Please, Mr. Dickey, spare us another round of your brilliance, and stay home. The media business has already suffered enough with the Clear Channel/iheart consolidation, Cumulus, and every other major attempt at scaling.