OTA Broadcasting won the bankrupt independent with a bid of $5.2 million in auction in Seattle yesterday. Only one other party showed up for the auction, according to broker Kalil & Co. OTA had established a base price for the station with a stalking horse bid of $3.45 milion.
DMA 13
OTA’s $5.2 Million Bid Wins KFFV Seattle
OTA Broadcasting won bankrupt KFFV Seattle-Tacoma, Wash., in a two-party auction in Seattle Thursday. It’s winning bid: $5.2 million.
OTA is owned by Michael S. Dell through MSD Capital LP, a New York-based investment firm. Todd Lawyer and William Tolpegin of Reston, Va., are CEO and CFO, respectively, according to FCC filings.
OTA had earlier submitted a stalking horse bid for the station of $3.45 million.
One other entity, KFFV LLC, bid for the full-power station at yesterday’s auction, but dropped out when the bidding hit $5.2 million. Because it was the stalking horse, OTA is entitled to a $150,000 discount so the actual proceeds will be $5.05 million.
It’s the second buy for OTA this month. Earlier this month, it asked the FCC to approved its purchase of KTLN San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Calif. (Novato, Calif.), from Christian Communications of Chicagoland for $8 million.
According to Frank Higney, of Kalil & Co., the broker representing the seller, KFFV is an independent station owned by North Pacific International Television Inc. It’s controlled by Carlene Casey, the widow of Kenneth, who died last year.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
The station began to struggle in 2008 during the recession and filed for bankruptcy last year, Higney said.
KFFV broadcasts infomercials and other paid programming on its primary channel and Azteca America and Asian programming on three subchannels, he said.
Higney declined to identify the people behind the losing bidder, KFFV LLC.
Comments (1)
Kim Cavaliere says:
July 5, 2011 at 5:18 pm
HJ, any idea why Dell is buying OTA channels? Clearly he must be a believer in broadcast spectrum for delivering content to their products in the future. Bring it on!!