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NY Billionaire John Catsimatidis Shows Interest in Placing a Bid to Buy CNN
Edited by: TJVNews.com
New York supermarket mogul, former candidate for mayor of the Big Apple and WABC radio talk show host, John Catsimatidis said on Thursday morning that he would be interested in placing a bid to purchase the beleaguered CNN cable network from its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
The billionaire philanthropist and staunch political conservative made these comments during an appearance on 77 WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” as was reported by the New York Post.
To show just how much he would like to gain a foot hold at CNN, he told the paper that he’d “go run the place tomorrow morning and all I’d want is $1 per year.”
The Post reported that in a subsequent interview, the 74 year old Catsimatidis did not say how much he’d be willing to spend to buy the Atlanta based cable giant and was scant on other details.
He signaled that financing a bid for the cable news network that has experienced low viewer ratings as of late and is going through leadership turmoil would not be a problem. He told the Post that, “It’s up to the investment bankers to come up with the numbers.”
“We could always bring partners in, but I want to run the place,” Catsimatidis told the Post. “We are capable of putting down a substantial amount of money.”
He added that, “I’d go run the place tomorrow morning, and all I’d want is $1 per year and a piece of the upside,” and claimed that he could “double the profits” in a short amount of time.
The Post also reported that Catsimatidis has a net worth of $4.1 billion. The billionaire pointed to the 77 WABC radio channel which shot up to No. 1 in Nielsen’s rated talk radio ratings under his ownership as proof that he could bolster CNN’s rank. (77 WABC took first place in October 2021, but sits in the No. 11 spot as of April.)
During his interview with the Post, Catsimatidis made an oblique reference to CNN CEO Chris Licht tendering his recent resignation. “Whoever is running that company is wrong,” Catsimatidis said. He said that Licht leaving the top spot at CNN after he placed Jeff Zucker was a bad move because under Licht’s leadership, CNN’s ratings shot up as he helmed the presidential town hall with Donald Trump that took place a few weeks ago. It had brought in more viewers than the network had seen in more than two years, the Post reported.
Catsimatidis also told the Post, “If the network is getting half-a-million viewers a night and they have Trump on and they get 3 million viewers, to fire the CEO for getting that many people…” Catsimatidis said.
Catsimatidis also assured in an interview with The Post that under him, CNN would be nothing like it was under Jeff Zucker, who was very publicly anti-Trump and was booted out of the network in early 2022 for failing to disclose his relationship with a subordinate.
The Post also reported that he said that if he were to take a leadership role, CNN would continue to make moves towards becoming more bipartisan, as it did under Licht.
In his interview with the Post, Catsimatidis emphasized, “I want the truth, not opinions. If people say there’s two truths, let’s voice both truths and let the viewers decide.”
The purchase would add cable television to Catsimatidis’ portfolio, which consists of Manhattan grocery chain Gristedes, real estate and aviation company Red Apple Group and 77 WABC radio, which the mogul bought in a $12.5 million cash deal in 2019, the Post reported.
Catsimatidis said “CNN deserves to be No. 1 in the world right now,” and said “Ted Turner created a wonderful network” that he suggested has fallen short of its founder’s vision under Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
And though Licht’s moves to do just that rendered him jobless, Catsimatidis believes he could more successfully “fix” CNN while maintaining a neutral political stance, according to the Post report.
“He at least tried to do the right thing,” Catsimatidis added of Licht, who resigned from the network after a tumultuous 13-month stint on Wednesday during which he fired several prominent on-air personalities, green-lighted the train-wreck town hall with Trump and saw CNN’s highly publicized streaming service snuffed out, the Post reported.
