Okay....
So yesterday I wrote about buying and controlling a major media outlet, and posted a poll about which one.
My suggestion met with a generally positive response, and with some really interesting discussion with Kossack jbou and (on another thread) with Kossack IrishAlum.
First, I would like to thank you folks for responding, and thank jbou and IrishAlum for their info and input.
Below, I will attempt to outline what I envision, and how I would go about doing it.
I would like to alert you all to the fact that I am in no way an expert on the inner workings of the corporate/shareholder/stockholder/boardroom world, so it may be that my idea is completely unworkable, or extremely difficult...if so, please let me know, give me input, or tell me so....
Finally, if this idea, or aspects of this idea are workable, useful, or interesting...STEAL IT!!! Send it to people with the experience and clout to make it work. Incorporate it into existing plans. All I ask in return is a lot of money and power....har!
What I envision is a modification of the old style "consumer collectives" combined with a version of the "Wall Street" corporate raider style action.
It comprises several steps:
- Coordination, planning, and picking a mark. Determine a target that is well-suited for such an operation. Get people signed on a coordinated, develope an accounting system and location to keep track of our activities.
- Orchestrate a widespread, individual based, essentially anonymous series of stock buys of the target company. In my opinion, we must choose a company whose stock is publically traded, and in which both common shares and voting shares can be purchased....or one in which a certain number of common shares can be converted to controlling shares, or whatever (as you may have noticed already, here is where my corporate understanding is very fuzzy)...I think the buying should be done in small lots, by individuals spending less than 1 or 2 hundred dollars apiece, and should be spread out over a period of time long enough to mask any major shifts or changes in volume - this prevents notice and prevents any major price changes. If we can get a million people together to buy 5 shares each, and pool those shares....well, you get the idea.
- Keep track.Report to a central location with data on the number a type of shares, when they were purchased, and from whom...
- Pool shares into a holding company or an elected person or group of persons who will receive the shares (as a gift??) from the individuals who bought them.
- Notify the company that this group, represented by our holding company and/or elected people who "own" all the stock purchased, now control X% (hopefully a large chunk...maybe even a controlling share??) of the stock, that we want a seat on the board, and that we intend to orchestrate a takeover....
- Trump card...if there is resistance of any legal or financial nature, and that resistance cannot be easily overcome without a long and expensive fight, then threaten to (and follow through on the threat) SELL ALL THE STOCK AT ONCE....thereby cratering the companies stock price and dividend structure. At that point, the money from the stock sale should be and could be returned to the individuals (plus or minus any profit or loss) and the process could be repeated.
Anyway, that's the bare bones.
What it would require, IMO, is a lot of coordination, and careful accounting coupled with careful selection of targets.
An example that was presented to me yesterday by jbou and IrishAlum was Gore's attempted purchase of the cable network owned by Barry Diller...and Diller's refusal to sell....imagine in such a situation, where Gore (or Soros or Turner or whomever) offered to buy...and Diller refused to sell...at which point Gore could then say "Okee-dokeee, Barry my GOOD friend, then I guess I will let my million or so friends who each own five shares of your stock to SELL it all tomorrow...have a nice, nice day!!"
At which point Diller would be faced with decimated stock values...and so on.