Crown Media Holdings, which said last week it may sell itself, co...
Crown Media Holdings, which said last week it may sell itself, could fetch more than $1 billion. The owner of the Hallmark Channel said last week it’s considering strategic alternatives including a sale to a 3rd-party (CD Aug 22…
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p8). Hallmark Cards owns a majority. The entire company, including its domestic library, could bring roughly $1.3 billion, estimated Jefferies & Co. cable analyst Robert Routh. Natexis Bleichroeder analyst Alan Gould predicted a price of about $1.1 billion. Both named Comcast, Disney and Liberty Media as possible buyers. Officials at Crown Media and Hallmark didn’t comment. “There are clearly synergies if a company with multiple cable networks were to absorb Crown Media,” Gould told us, saying the company has about $450 million in net debt. “It’s very difficult in today’s environment to have the economics work as a single [channel] programmer.”