The typical example would be an investment banking firm with multiple lines of business. Perhaps one division is helping a company sell its bonds to the public, and perhaps another division is analyzing its client’s assets, etc.  One division might realize its assets are worth about 20 cents on the dollar, while the other is trying to ream the public by selling the bonds for 97 cents on the dollar. (Any bells going off yet? Think Mortgage Crisis).

Anywho, imagine what would happen if  one sports team also owned the major newspaper in that town.  John W. Henry the owner of the Boston Red Sox is now the owner of the Boston Globe, purchasing the newspaper from the New York Times for the absurdly low purchase price of $70M – a mere $1.030B less than the purchase price in 1993.  Two years prior, the Times rejected a $300 million offer from Aaron Kushner, CEO of Freedom Communications, Inc.  That’s some astute valuation work NTY.  But back to my point:  Isn’t it quite possible that the Boston Red Globe will essentially be a PR outlet for the team. So many great stories will go unwritten.  Chicken and beer in the dugout, we will never hear about. Roid-rage incidents such as smashing a harmless dugout phone and nearly taking out the team’s best player, will go un-reported. Pitchers missing a start, only to be found on the golf course.  Who will know?

Forget the Chinese Wall, how about a giant Cone of Silence?

No one heeded the warnings we issued the following day (April 10th) when the power of the King James Curse first manifested itself during a 100-77 dismantling of the Celtics by the Heat where Miami secured the #2 seed for the playoffs. http://thebenchjockeys.com/2011/04/10/the-king-james-curse-is-unleashed/  However, we didn’t go so far as to offer the icing on the cake:  LeBron posted an iconic ’33’ in Game 5 or as we like to call it, a ‘Larry.’  That’s just a horrific insult to injury in Boston.  In Beantown, there is #9 (Ted Williams), #4 (Bobby Orr) and #33.  Although D Wade put up 34 points in game 5, it will be LeBron’s 33 that will become part of New England’s lore as the King James Curse becomes Boston’s newest karmic albatross.

Production Note: For the next 85 years, John Henry will be playing the role of Harry Frazee.  Thank you, and enjoy the show.