Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site pur-phy.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:pur-phy!act From: act@pur-phy.UUCP (Alex C. Tselis) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Good evening. This is the CBS Evening News, Jesse Helms reporting. Message-ID: <1591@pur-phy.UUCP> Date: Wed, 16-Jan-85 00:41:08 EST Article-I.D.: pur-phy.1591 Posted: Wed Jan 16 00:41:08 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 07:28:55 EST References: <295@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <929@amdahl.UUCP> Reply-To: act@pur-phy.UUCP (Alex C. Tselis) Organization: Purdue Univ. Physics Dept., IN Lines: 31 Summary: In article <929@amdahl.UUCP> gam@amdahl.UUCP (gam) writes: >> News item from the NYT, Jan. 11, 1985 (article by Sally Bedell Smith): >> >> ...According to the documents, Senator Helms sent letters to >> conservatives around the country urging them to buy shares in CBS >> in order to influence the company.... >> CBS officials said there are 29.7 million shares of CBS stock held by >> about 24,000 shareholders. William S. Paley, the former CBS >> chairman, is the largest individual stockholder, with 6.55 percent. >> The price of a share of CBS stock closed yesterday at $73.875. > >So in order get controlling influence of the company (ie, get >50.000...0001% of the stock of CBS) would cost > 29.7M * $73.875 (say) / 2 = $1097.04M = $1+ BILLION. > >I understand from an "All Things Considered" report that the plan >was to send the letters to 1 million conservatives. Each (and >every one!) would have to buy $1000 of CBS stock (guess what such >a rush to buy will do to the stock price?). And then they all >have to agree (each and every one!) on what policies CBS should >follow. >-- >Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun}!amdahl!gam But suppose that the conservatives did get control and were able to influence editorial decisions. What would happen? All the best people would leave, the ratings would plummet, and the price of the stock takes a nosedive. This is not the sort of thing conservatives would be likely to get into. (It might lead, eventually, to my buying lots of cheap CBS stock, and then, when everybody returned to CBS and the price rose, I could make a killing!!! After all, at 50 cents a share, even I could afford it.)