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Keith J. Kelly

Keith J. Kelly

 Media
media ink

Salon Media near deal to sell big stake to activist hedge fund

By
Keith J. Kelly
Published Jan. 24, 2017
Updated Jan. 25, 2017, 11:14 a.m. ET

Salon Media, one of the trailblazing pioneers of digital publishing that has struggled in recent years, is on the brink of selling a controlling stake to activist investor Spear Point Capital, sources tell Media Ink.

Spear Point would then use its control of Salon to make a run at Jim Cramer’s TheStreet.com, one person familiar with the plans said.

TheStreet is a publicly traded company, and Spear Point, which owns a 4.9 percent stake, has been lobbying for board seats.

It won’t take much cash for Spear Point to buy a controlling stake in Salon. The 22-year-old digital publishing enterprise, which has been plagued by high-level turnover on the executive and editorial side — as well as declining revenue — has a market capitalization of only $6.1 million and a stock price of 8 cents a share.

At its IPO in 1999, its stock was $10.50 a share with a market cap of $105 million.

Spear Point has been quietly snapping up Salon Media Group shares in recent weeks, sources said.

Ron Bienvenu, head of Spear Point, said, “We are actively seeking investment in the digital media space. We are actively seeking a public platform with the right management team to bring a modern management mindset to the digital industry.”

He declined to comment on any possible interest in Salon.

In late May, former NBC News producer-turned-venture capitalist Jordan Hoffner was named CEO after the board ousted Cindy Jeffers, who held the job for the previous five years.

Editor-in-chief David Daley left in June.

Salon was founded by David Talbot and a handful of refugees from the San Francisco Examiner in 1995.

It spawned such writers as Jake Tapper, now at CNN, the Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald, former Editor-in-Chief Joan Walsh (now at MSNBC) and Alex Pareene, who went on to edit the now-defunct Gawker.com.

In the run-up to the 2016 election cycle, it was relentlessly pro-Bernie Sanders and just as relentlessly anti-Hillary Clinton, which angered some of its former staffers.

Hoffner could not be reached for comment at press time.