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You could tell a similar story about vulture capital in many other industries. So it makes me wonder: what value to society do these practices provide? Would th

You could tell a similar story about vulture capital in many other industries. So it makes me wonder: what value to society do these practices provide? Would there be any great loss in making these sorts of actions illegal? (Of course, good luck distinguishing between genuine attempts to save failing businesses and vultures…)

toiletfuneral 5y ago
Yeah I’m deeply tired of every single human endeavor’s existence being solely judged on its ability to provide returns to shareholders. Wish we could just nationalize stuff that people like which doesn’t generate profit. I sort of used to think that was the point of the state but I live in the US where the government is just a entity to provide contracts to corporations.
zz865 5y ago
I think the point is these media companies are near-worthless, if vulture funds didn't buy them no one else would and they'd just fold.
- human_person 5y ago
  What do you mean by 'near-worthless'? A small radio station that provides connection, information and entertainment to a rural area and a handful of jobs for community members might be "worthless" in the sense that it wont create massive returns for an investor but that doesnt make it worthless to the community it is a part of. The problem is these vultures come in make false promises about supporting the station and then suck it dry. In the end the vultures walk away with a tidy profit and the community is worse off. Just because we cant quantify the value of something in terms of hard currency doesnt make it worthless.
  - haneefmubarak 5y ago
    I believe that by "near-worthless" they mean that a given company is hemorrhaging assets and basically about to fold. A business that continuously runs net negative has to close at some point without an external influx of capital, after all. The alleged theory goes that since without the help of some fund such a company is going to fold anyways, the fund can't really do much worse than the alternative, so might as well let them have a shot at repairing the business and rescuing it. Sometimes they're successful, sometimes they're not.
  - zz865 5y ago
    Yeah I mean economically worthless, not socially useful.
- knownjorbist 5y ago
  Shareholder returns aren't the only value these organizations can provide.
hnuser847 5y ago
They buy failing businesses and try to stabilize them, just like iHeartRadio is going around and buying local radio stations. These are dead-end businesses that would have failed anyways.
- paul_f 5y ago
  The goal is not to shut them down. The goal is to make the papers profitable and maintain that for as long as possible. Seems to me they are doing a good thing
none_to_remain 5y ago
What value to the ecology are the practices of literal vultures? They eat the dead and moribund

toiletfuneral 5y ago

Yeah I’m deeply tired of every single human endeavor’s existence being solely judged on its ability to provide returns to shareholders. Wish we could just nationalize stuff that people like which doesn’t generate profit. I sort of used to think that was the point of the state but I live in the US where the government is just a entity to provide contracts to corporations.

zz865 5y ago

I think the point is these media companies are near-worthless, if vulture funds didn't buy them no one else would and they'd just fold.

human_person 5y ago
What do you mean by 'near-worthless'? A small radio station that provides connection, information and entertainment to a rural area and a handful of jobs for community members might be "worthless" in the sense that it wont create massive returns for an investor but that doesnt make it worthless to the community it is a part of. The problem is these vultures come in make false promises about supporting the station and then suck it dry. In the end the vultures walk away with a tidy profit and the community is worse off. Just because we cant quantify the value of something in terms of hard currency doesnt make it worthless.
- haneefmubarak 5y ago
  I believe that by "near-worthless" they mean that a given company is hemorrhaging assets and basically about to fold. A business that continuously runs net negative has to close at some point without an external influx of capital, after all. The alleged theory goes that since without the help of some fund such a company is going to fold anyways, the fund can't really do much worse than the alternative, so might as well let them have a shot at repairing the business and rescuing it. Sometimes they're successful, sometimes they're not.
- zz865 5y ago
  Yeah I mean economically worthless, not socially useful.
knownjorbist 5y ago
Shareholder returns aren't the only value these organizations can provide.

hnuser847 5y ago

They buy failing businesses and try to stabilize them, just like iHeartRadio is going around and buying local radio stations. These are dead-end businesses that would have failed anyways.

paul_f 5y ago
The goal is not to shut them down. The goal is to make the papers profitable and maintain that for as long as possible. Seems to me they are doing a good thing

none_to_remain 5y ago

What value to the ecology are the practices of literal vultures? They eat the dead and moribund