On Thursday morning, there were a lot of questions from analysts about iHeartMedia’s debt, higher expenses, and how the company will survive moving forward. iHeartCommunications has $365 million in cash compared to $845 million a year ago. Expenses were up, operating income was down, and debt remained flat at $20.3 billion. CFO Richard Bressler responded to those questions with this list of reasons…
Bressler said part of the reason there was more cash in Q1 2016 was due to the sale of billboards that were recorded in that quarter. He also said there were additional programming and talent costs (the company just resigned Elvis Duran to a big contract), the timing of trade and barter costs, the seasonality of the first quarter, and challenges with accounts receivable. Traditionally, for radio, the first quarter is always the weakest quarter but Bressler admitted, on several occasions, that he was surprised by the softness of the advertising market. He said he expected it to be more robust.
One analyst directly asked why the expenses were so high in Q1 in light of the weak advertising market. He said, “How did this happen? This is way out of trend. What do we say to investors?” Bressler assured the skeptical analysts on the call that the company is doing everything possible to address the cost structure of the company, something employees have been very well aware of lately.
iHeart paid $543.3 million in interest expense during the first quarter.
Read the financials HERE.
Well said Sal. And it’s so obvious…anytime there’s bad financial news re Clear Channel/Iheart, Pittman is hiding. Pittman even had the gall last year when he was asked about a possible IHeart bankruptcy? said something like “Oh, I leave all those matters to our financial people.” Yeah right
…And how many millions of dollars in gold parachutes will Pittman and his boys Pressler and all collect, when the company goes bankrupt ??? Pittman has never ever made the company one penny in profit!!!!!! Yes, these guys are total frauds. Pittman is a sheister, but give him credit for pulling off this huge con job.
Bresler was ‘suprised’ by a soft ad market? His job is to know and to anticipate, not to say he was ‘surprised’ after the fact. And what if iHeart had sold another $200 million in ads in Q1, what difference would it have made? They would have only lost $188 million instead of $388 million. They still have $21B in debt and when you have two clowns like Pittman & Bresler running the show, what do you expect? Did anyone ask Bresler why Pittman still has carte balance use of a corporate jet at his disposal? Or what justified Pittman and Bresler receiving a combined $9 million bonus is Q1? These guys are the biggest fraud jokers in American business history. Since Pittman has been at the helm of iHeart, the company has lost a cumulative $6 billion – yes BILLION with a “B”. In the meantime, he has pillaged the company coffers by doing things like remodeling the corporate HQ for several million dollars and installed a mist tunnel, while cutting commissions in the field. These guys are crooks. Remember Enron, Lehman Brothers, WaMu and Bernie Madoff? Everyone lamented how could this have happened right in front of our eyes. Well, it’s happening again.