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Background
In August, with the closing of the Matthew Bender and
Shepards divestitures, we began what we expect will be
an extensive period of managing surplus capital. * * *
Ultimately, our planning challenge is to assess
realistically what the levels of spending might be in
the primary areas of priority which we have stated to
the Board before:
# Capital investments in existing businesses to
drive growth
# Acquisitions that enhance our existing lines
of business
# Dividends necessary to maintain a payout
ratio commensurate with our peer group
average
# Consistent with long-term capitalization
goals, opportunistic stock repurchase
* * * * * * *
Sizing Our Resources
In August, the closing of the divestiture of Matthew
Bender resulted in the deposit of $1,375 million of
gross proceeds into the account of Liberty Bell I,
L.L.C., an investment affiliate of Times Mirror.
Additionally, the divestiture of our share of the
Shepards joint venture resulted in the deposit in Times
Mirror’s account of $275 million. While the cash
received by Times Mirror has all been used to retire
short-term debt, the following approximately depicts
the current deployment of capital within Liberty Bell:
$ Millions
Short-term Money Market Assets $1,000
Times Mirror Common Stock� 384
Other 2
Total Liberty Bell Assets $1,386
� At cost
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