The Business of Radio

by Tom Gordon & Jeff McKay

 

June 25, 2018

 

Could iHeart Media be up for sale?   Liberty Media CEO John Malone did toss in a lowball $1.16 billion offer for 40% of iHeart, which of course was turned away, but Malone and the owners of Sirius XM could be in the shadows to make another offer down the road.  This news comes as iHeart has offered up an unflattering expectation of a 4% loss for core audio-business revenues this year.   Could TuneIn be up for sale?  According to a report in Bloomberg, they may be looking at options which could include looking for a buyer.   The NAB-proposed radio de-regulation may not be going over too well – iHeart already came out being against it right now, and their bankruptcy situation may be a good reason for that, while Cumulus didn’t vote no yet – saying they haven’t come up with a policy on the subject yet.  Cumulus is heading back to Wall Street’s good graces – filing documents to reclaim their former Nasdaq “CMLS” ticker symbol and setting up to 100 million shares in each of the Class A, Class B & Preferred stock shares for sale.