Billionaire Warren Buffet’s iconic company Berkshire Hathaway will trade 1.6 million shares of Graham Holdings stock in exchange for WPLG, according to a report from Deadline
It’s been known for a while that Buffett wants to exit Graham Holdings, formerly known as the Washington Post Co., who are left with only their TV stations and a business in the education sector. Buffett will allegedly get WPLG plus an unspecified amount of cash.
The Washington Post company bought WPLG in 1969 and changed its call letters to WPLG in memory of Phillip L. Graham, the husband of Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham.
Graham Holdings is “giving” WB cash on top of the share trade??
Very interesting….
Wonder if WB plans to flip WPLG in a few years or incorporate it into another one of his holdings/operating companies?
i wish warren b was buying us! that’s good for them
Maybe he’ll just turn it over in 2 to 5 years for a modest profit. Most networks are getting out of the o-and-o biz, but who knows?
This is very interesting. I read that WB wanted to reduce his investment in Graham and this is a way to do it by doing a stock swap that avoids a huge capital gains tax for Berkshire. Buffet usually buys businesses to keep them and operate them, unless something changes in the fundamentals of the business. He made a lot of money on his Capital Cities/ABC investment back in the 1990’s. This may be the beginning of him building a broadcast group. I read that this deal values 10 at $364 million.
I guess that this means that 10 will no longer be under the control of Emily Barr.
You are right. He usually is a long term player.
which could be positive.
Yup…Emily is gone too. Who will be calling the shots? Who will be replaced?
PLG is already profitable right?
WB wants to make it more profitable. How will this be accomplished?? Investing more dollars….or by cutting expenses to boost profits?
Time will tell…
There are rumors that WB might but ABC O & O’s from Disney.
*buy
Emily Barr will have to ship Bert Medina to another Post station to the elation of Bill Pohovey who’d be uncuffed and allowed to run the place again, assuming he gets to stay. Bet Buffet starts scooping up other stations. Watch this space.
Berkshire has a large investment in Media General. Maybe he puts WPLG together with MG. He has to do something with all that cash flow from GEICO. As demonstrated by his deals for BNSF and Heinz, WB is not letting his cash collect dust.
Now back to vacation mode..boots and pants and boots and pants and boots and pants.
Does this mean all employees at WPLG are now considered “associates”?
Maybe this will be KARMA for those wronged by prior management and ownership!
New call letters will be WBUF. lol
I like the call letters WBFT if its not taken lol
Eventually Warren Buffet will buy the rest of the Post Newsweek Stations. The Graham family is looking for new owners.
This story came as somewhat of a surprise. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquiring WPLG Local 10 from Post-Newsweek (Graham Television Holdings). Comes less than a year after Amazon.com Founder/CEO Jeff Bezos acquired The Washington Post and other Post-owned papers. I could picture Buffett eventually acquiring remaining Graham-owned stations… WDIV Detroit, KPRC Houston, KSAT San Antonio, WKMG Orlando, and WJXT Jacksonville.
I could picture WJXT hitching up with Fox, some 12 years after ending its then 53-year union with CBS… and a couple other Jacksonville stations making affiliation and ownership changes. I could see WAWS affiliating with ABC, and Cox selling the station to Nexstar. WCWJ keeping CW affiliation and Nexstar ownership. Gannett’s WJXX affiliating with My-Network-TV. WTLV keep NBC affiliation and Gannett ownership. WTEV keeping CBS affiliation.
I could also picture Buffett acquiring Las Vegas CBS station KLAS from Landmark, which recently sold Nashville CBS station WTVF to Journal.
Does this mean we can finally get our award winning meteoroligst back on air and get rid of the ditz? At least we get rid of Emily Barr and her changes. Hopefully this is for the best.
Leave Betty Davis and Trent Aric alone. Both are doing a great job.
Hopefully this means WPLG will refocus on hiring qualified meteorologists (or promoting Trent Aric back to chief), get rid of the cheerleader ditzes they have all over the reporting team, and put Jacey Birch back on weekdays where she belongs. I hope WB makes some smart changes to bring them back to being #1 in South Florida.
watching Janine Stanwood and Victor O’Quendo anchoring the 5pm news today. very good.
OMG it’s sad that a year later some of you wants Trent Aric back on weekdays. Most of you guys are still stuck in past time where that position was for white men only. Appreciate Ch.10 for hiring talents that reflect our community. I do agree with you that Jacey should be anchoring weekdays. Betty has a following and she is qualified to be in that position. When we had severe weather in our area last week, Ch. 10 was the only station that gave viewers real time updated information and Betty Davis handled it well. She was accurate and knew what she was saying. And the term “Haitian Station” means too many blacks on one station, which is ignorant for someone to say. We need to embrace our diverse community. Btw, Trent and Betty are good friends and respect each other’s work.
I don’t believe Trent Aric ever said there was a holiday on Monday when there wasn’t. Betty ditz head is not qualified to walk my dog. Trent Aric won 2 Emmy’s this year. It has nothing to do with race so please don’t go there.
Apparently LisaG does not know those emmys are hogwash….
They don’t mean shit.
Somebody find that thread and share with LisaG.
Yes LisaG I’m going there…Trent is not perfect either or anyone else we all make mistakes. We are human! She later corrected herself. So what if he won Emmys his personality is flat. I was like you when Betty was promoted to weekdays. Betty brings personality & charisma. The chemistry is better than before.
its really y incredible that they have trent aric and roland steadham on staff and yet they feature betty white and julie durda..and dont start with the sexist crap either because its clear betty is horrible and julie is a little better then betty but she is weekends at best..anyone see those morning on the road live shits that julie did, yikes that was bad, she better stay in the studio
Trent and roland have every right to leave if they do not believe they are being showcased enough…
I agree with joe r! Who in the right mind hires an ex-Chief Meteorologist back into a local TV station and puts him on weekend mornings duty? Trent and Roland are being wasted on weekend coverage. Julie nor Betty have the know and talent Trent and Roland have shown us.
Plus they keep bringing mediocre talent (MJ “tongue tide” Acosta, Liane Morejon, Constance “too loud” Jones, and Eric Yutzy) and try to blend them with real journalists who know how to handle their jobs in a great way.
Forget all of the racists comments being made by calling it the “Haitian” station…bottom line WPLG was the leader in the TV market and now they spend their time begging for “Likes” on the Facebook page.
Warren Buffet will hopefully make some quick changes so his investment can gain some extra value.
So what your are a saying bring back a happy white only news team. Those names you mentioned are minorities and they are qualified like anyone else to work at WPLG. Comparing Julie to Betty that’s some BS! Will Warren Buffet keep WPLG or sell to a different media group? Like Gannett, ABC, Scripps, Hearst?
Buffet as always will bring in top notch pros to evaluate then make long overdue changes.
Hiring based on diversification rather than competence has earned them the label “Hatian Station” for more than one reason. Singing, dancing, eating and repeatedly using ghetto slang during a live newscast will drive viewers elsewhere everytime. Now they are looking up to see bottom. Buffet will not accept their low standards. He’ll turn it around.
Re hiring on diversification..
The problem w some of u is that no one of ethnic decent is good enough.
they could hire Al Roker and Robin Roberts and most of you clowns would still be beating the same tired ass drum.
“If its white….its alright”???
Laughable…
Your confusing competence with color. Big difference.
Nope.
It seems as if some of the ridiculous banter read here would lead one to believe that any wplg minority hire is disadvantaged day one.
I do realize views expressed here do not represent the viewing base….but geez man.
it gets old.
FTVLIVE:
Eyebrows were raised yesterday when word came down that Warren Buffett was buying WPLG in Miami.
Buffett’s company Berkshire had been an investor in Washington Post Co. since the 1970s, with Buffett having served as a board member of the publishing and TV station conglom.
WPLG’s parent company changed it’s name to Graham Holdings from the Washington Post Co. after it sold its flagship newspaper to Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos last year.
But, the big question is Warren Buffett going to stop at just one TV station?
It seems very unlikely that Buffett will own WPLG and no other TV properties.
Could Buffett also make a play for the ABC O&O’s?
As FTVLive told you back in October of last year, Disney looked to hire an investment bank to explore a possible sale of its eight O&O’s.
Could Warren Buffett be snatching them up?
WPLG and ABC affiliate would fit nicely in the portfolio of Buffett with the other ABC O&O stations.
Stay tuned….
From Barry Jackson, Miami Herald:
### The big local broadcast news today was Warren Buffett buying WPLG-Channel 10. In a less important development, the station is shifting Victor Oquendo, its No. 2 sportscaster, to news; Oquendo will co-anchor at 4:30 and 5:30. WPLG hired Fort Myers sportscaster Clayton Ferraro to fill its No. 2 sportscaster job, behind lead sports anchor Will Manso.
Do you guys think Warren Buffett will buy more tv stations from graham holdings or from ABC owned stations? I’m hearing rumors about him buying WJXT and making it an ABC station. The purchase of WPLG yesterday has shock the media industry.
WJXT affiliating with ABC would be another interesting idea… Gannett’s WJXX affiliate with My-Network-TV. I could see ABC considering unloading Raleigh-Durham and Fresno stations… holding on to the New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Houston stations. Too bad ABC wasn’t able to get WJLA DC (Allbritton’s soon-to-be former flagship, which is being sold to Sinclair).
News of Graham selling WPLG to Buffett is a day old. This could have some, including myself, scratching our heads on whether or not Graham is exploring whether or not to sell its remaining stations (WDIV Detroit, KPRC Houston, KSAT San Antonio, WKMG Orlando, and WJXT) to Buffett. Another idea I’ve thrown out… if Landmark Communications still wishes to exit the TV station ownership business, I could picture Buffett also eyeing KLAS Las Vegas.
Julie seems to be pretty popular with the people at GMA. Wouldn’t be surprised to see her leave for the big apple.
mike,
that would be fantastic if she went to gma for her and us…win-win
Breaking News: @JasonMartinezTV: Guys, this is my last newscast anchoring the Local10 morning news. Thank you Miami. Thank you WPLG.
Don’t blame you bro. They surronded you with a bunch of clowns and never gave you the long overdue promotion to late night, weekend, or afternoon broadcast. Stick a fork in that morning news show now. It is done! BOL, Jason.
Sportsfreak…uh I mean Trent… Please stop already.. Accept your demotion…. move on. This anonymous bashing of your fellow weather anchors does not become you.
Mr. Beiber. I have never spoke, met, or had contact of any kind with Trent Eric. I am an independent business man that happens to enjoy, like thousands, reading this site then contribute commentary and make observations. If I have any axe to grind it is the way that station dismissed highly qualified experienced and much liked weathermen with women that by no means are superior in any way which their falling sweeps numbers haved indicated. As if the weathermen were EVER the cause of their news appeal demise
Sam you poor misguided soul.
It has NOTHING to do with race or gender. Why can’t you accept the fact not everybody is in love with Betty’s style. It doesn’t take away she may be a wonderful person. But, IT DOES have to do with qualifications. Trent was a chief meteorologist and certified. Betty comes with less experience and a background on the Weather Channel. So what? They come and go on TWC …..whoopty doo!
Trent belongs in prime time. Let Betty do weekends and fill ins. Trent’s talents are wasted. As far as Roland, I’d rather watch paint dry. Qualified or not, he is as boring as they come.
This new merger will write the wrongs done to many. KARMA will see to that.
And as far as people thinking “The Hatian Station” was racist, it’s not. Read back on the WPLG posts on this website. It clearly outlines the reason that name came about.
The way i see it….sam is responding to the reoccurring comments raised here by the nauseating few..
Is “bigoted” a better, kinder way to describe how a few folks leverage the term “haitian station”???
sportsfreak… I mean Trent… yeah right.