Bets on! Nasty surprises ahead with Hollinger deal?

[susu369]

My bet: all my chips in the pot - oh, yes.
Hope Perle is losing some sleep....

http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1126138,00.html

Can he or can't he? No one seemed certain whether Lord Black would be able to complete the £258m sale of his newspapers - which include the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs - to the Barclay brothers. After news of the planned sale of Hollinger Inc broke on Sunday, obstacles appeared at every turn.

Although the US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Hollinger International - the newspaper publisher which is controlled by Hollinger Inc - it said it would not block the sale. But the board of Hollinger International, furious at fees taken from the company by Lord Black and his associates, has set up a committee to assess its options. As the New York Times said: "The board apparently wanted more time to evaluate the complex choices offered by the Barclay bid." And the Daily Mail's Alex Brummer felt the board's installation of a new chairman suggested "the Barclay brothers' path will not be strewn with roses".

-snip-

But are the directors, who last week ousted Lord Black from the chair of Hollinger International, truly a band of white knights? Hardly, suggested Paul Kedrosky in the National Post, the Canadian paper formerly owned by Lord Black.

"Hollinger International is trying to protect itself (and its directors) against inevitable accusations of incompetence," he said. "After all, no one forced the Hollinger International board to make the more than $200m <£110m> in payments it did to Lord Black and his management team. If they really didn't want to do it, board members like Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle could have resigned in protest, but they didn't."

-snip-

[glarius]

1. It's lovely to see these overbearing asses get their due!

"Lord" Black or Connie as I call him....is finally getting his comeupance.....He's such a pompous jerk. When he was still in Canada he was always talking down to Canadians as if he was just a cut above the rest of us.....At the risk of sounding malicious, I'm really enjoying his fall from grace.

[susu369]

2. "You can cut the schadenfreude with a knife.

The latest twists in the Conrad Black affair have Canadian media sorts nearly giddy with delight over Lord Black’s escalating problems."

Quote from http://paul.kedrosky.com

Glarius, obviously, you are not the only one enjoying his fall from grace. :-)

[Bush loves Jiang]

3. I don't like him...

But I considered Chrétien's blocking him from ascending into the House of Lords to be a waste of time and a waste of resources.

Canada is part of the British Commonwealth, and it's none of Chrétien's damn business if a Canadian citizen is given the opportunity to receive peerage. (Hell, I'd rather see Black in there than any of the hereditary peers.)

[glarius]

4. I really don't care about all that....I just can't stand the man and am

glad to see him get what he deserves!