There has been some reporting that DIS has been talking to Nexstar about a possible sale of ABC. Nothing is firm at all, not even close, only cursory talks have been held so far is my understanding.
Curious about any opinions on this. I’m sure we will get an article on it from Rick (if he hasn’t done one already, I’ll have to check; I just saw this news now myself). My take at the moment (may change as I hear other opinions): I would rather the company keep ABC, I think it is a great, unique asset, one that can be used to both incubate new programming and amortize content from other platforms DIS owns (the media ecosystem, in other words). I’d sell ESPN first over ABC.
However, if the decision is made to sell ABC, then I’ll just accept it and look forward, but I’ll say this: I’m assuming enough money would be made from it (after taxes) to eliminate just about all of the debt. I would hope the money is used for that purpose primarily (and I’ll include the obligation to CMCSA within that amount). Of course, that would imply a net worth of ABC between $60 and $70 billion … I don’t know, worth that much? DIS paid $19 billion back in '94 I think it was. Not sure ABC appreciated that much. I’ll have to check around to see what ABC might be worth today (and if Nexstar would need partners to financially facilitate the deal)…
Editing this: Well, let me say, I may have vastly overstated ABC’s putative value…I just read Byron Allen reportedly would like to offer $10 billion for ABC and some of DIS’s cable channels…thinking about it, when DIS bought ABC, it actually was buying Capital Cities, which also owned ESPN, and this was at a time when broadcasting arguably was more valuable - i.e., not in an age of streaming. So, please disregard my hypothesis…however, I will say, I think $10 billion has to be a bit low…there has to be billions more to be had for this asset in goodwill alone (if I am using that term in its proper accounting perspective)…