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"We are in a frozen block if ice until the banks decide what they want to do " - broker Mike Bergner
I'm still polling media brokers about their takeaways from Las Vegas and Florida - based Bergner says for the moment, it's up to the banks. "They started with the entrepreneurs realizing they had no equity left, and that took 6 months. Then the private equity realized they had no equity. Now the banks are coming to grips with the fact they're underwater, also. Until those 3 groups get in a room and decide what they're doing, nothing's going to happen [in terms of loosening up the station trading market]. We'll stay in a block of ice." As for those meetings, Mike says "some of them are going to get nasty, some are going to be amicable. I know of several situaitons where private equity is ready to hand in the keys as soon as they get a little tip, a goodbye kiss. But so far, those have not been coming. In regard to the public companies - they are just levered up to the gills." |
