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A regular meeting of Times Mirror’s board of directors was
convened on October 8, 1998. A written report for this meeting
contained the following statements:
Mosby and Matthew Bender Update
Since our last Board meeting in July, substantial
progress has been made in the divestiture of Mosby and
Matthew Bender.
The divestiture of Matthew Bender/Shepard’s * * *
closed on July 31. Times Mirror received $275 million
in cash for the sale of our 50% interest in Shepard’s
and Liberty Bell I was funded with $1,375 million
through the merger of Matthew Bender. As indicated at
the last Board meeting, the cash received by Times
Mirror was used to repay short-term debt and the funds
held by Liberty Bell will be invested in the repurchase
of Times Mirror stock and in high-quality short-term
investments.
In addition, the section of the October 8, 1998, board report
entitled “Capital Planning Discussion” contained the following
statements:
Introduction
Since the July Board meeting, we have continued to
sharpen our focus on our intended use of the proceeds
from the Mosby and Matthew Bender dispositions as well
as our continuing significant free cash flow. It had
not been our assumption that we would immediately turn
around and use these resources as a war chest to
finance a major acquisition program, and over the past
several months we tested this presumption by examining
in detail the prospect for value creation and the
acceleration of earnings growth through acquisitions.
* * *
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