CL CEO keeps company — UPDATED
March 31, 2009 at 3:00 pm by Mara Shalhoup in Inside CL
Eason
Fresh from a Tampa courtroom, our colleague Wayne Garcia has the scoop on CL’s ownership dispute:
Ben Eason, whose family started Creative Loafing in Atlanta in 1972, was vindicated in a federal bankruptcy court in Tampa today, as a judge ruled against a lender’s effort to take control of the nation’s second-largest chain of alt-weekly newspapers.
Judge Caryl E. Delano said despite contradictory (and flawed, in her estimation) reports about the chain’s value since going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2008, there was no evidence given that Eason’s management of the media company is harming its value, as lender Atalaya Capital Management had maintained in its effort to dislodge Eason and the current management.
To the contrary, Delano read from the bench, three days of hearings showed that Eason’s management had done a lot to preserve value, by making budget cuts and introducing an emphasis on web publishing models, including one in Tampa that has produced a sharp increase in web traffic while making the print edition a break-even proposition instead of a money-losing one.
“I find that Atalaya has not met its initial burden of proof and is not entitled to relief [from court stays against it foreclosing on the company's debt] at this time,” Delano said.
Continue reading “CL CEO keeps company — UPDATED” …
March 31st, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Awesome! We’re almost there… congrats Ben!
March 31st, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Oh no. Ben has no concern about journalistic integrity and he’s going to ruin the product. I’m seriously bummed. I can’t believe they let Ben keep the company. GM sounds like he’s kissing up. Signs that a poorly run system is gonna keep on chugging along.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:09 am
relax Mr. Concerned. There should be thousands of drinks in the air for CL and all the David’s that truck to the North Ave wharehouse and get their weeks keep.
Bad deciscions on Eason to take a line of credit for 30 large on flegeling papers? ABSOLUTLEY! But the CL is still his blood, let ‘em try and make it right.
Why would anyone want to LOAN 30 milly on a dying industry is my question!?
Get the right people in the room and they’ll figure it out…
david beat goliath for now.
And it should be up to Eason on if and how the ship goes down. I’ve got faith , though. CL has too much Karma in 30 years!
April 1st, 2009 at 9:15 am
Did Eason buy that MARTA-inspired tie, or simply rent it?
April 1st, 2009 at 9:44 am
Banks don’t care about karma and the readers were drawn by the content. Unless Eason finds equals to Edelstein et al, the CL will die and deservedly so. Sad.