To the point: joy at the Rhine knee
Moritz Suter, founder of Crossair and a native Basel entrepreneur, has acquired Basler Zeitung Medien (BZM) from Tito Tettamanti and Wagner and brought the group’s headquarters back home to Basel. At the same time, he terminated his consulting contract with Blocher’s Robinvest. The back-and-forth surrounding the Basler Zeitung has thus come to a happy conclusion. There’s joy in Basel. Or so one might think.
But is that really the case? There are still a few problems: What will happen to the unloved editor-in-chief Martin Somm? The attacks on Somm by the editorial staff were fierce. Is it suddenly peace, joy and happiness again? That's hard to believe.
The local politicians in Basel have also fallen silent, the main thing being that the evil Ticino financier Tettamanti is gone and Zurich's Blocher has nothing more to say. It would still have been possible to come to terms with Wagner from Basel.
As was to be expected, the Sunday press again dealt intensively with the BaZ case. Tettamanti, who is usually rather shy of interviews, even had his say twice, and management consultant Blocher was allowed to present his conspiracy theories in Sonntag.
And already the guesswork is starting again. Tettamanti says that he would have made a small profit on the sale of his shares, Moritz Suter, on the other hand, already said last week that the sellers could not have asked for "much more money" for such a highly indebted company. There could be an explanation for this, namely that Suter has now only paid part of the purchase price and the rest would only be due after BZM has been restructured.
As usual with company takeovers, it has been agreed to keep the sales price secret. What good is this phrase if the protagonists do everything they can through failed communication to keep the speculation going?
Where did Moritz Suter get the money, they ask, and who from the Basel Daig helped him? Or is the SVP father Blocher somehow involved after all? Rumors are flying and will continue to fill the columns for some time.
It will be interesting to see how Moritz Suter will restructure BZM. The already announced cost-cutting measures in the editorial department are unlikely to solve the problem, and even moving out of the feudal editorial offices will not be enough. The highly indebted print shop is the main problem. And finding a solution here on our own is likely to be difficult. Dear Zurichers and Aargauers, dress warmly if you want to invest in the region one day.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
The local politicians in Basel have also fallen silent, the main thing being that the evil Ticino financier Tettamanti is gone and Zurich's Blocher has nothing more to say. It would still have been possible to come to terms with Wagner from Basel.
As was to be expected, the Sunday press again dealt intensively with the BaZ case. Tettamanti, who is usually rather shy of interviews, even had his say twice, and management consultant Blocher was allowed to present his conspiracy theories in Sonntag.
And already the guesswork is starting again. Tettamanti says that he would have made a small profit on the sale of his shares, Moritz Suter, on the other hand, already said last week that the sellers could not have asked for "much more money" for such a highly indebted company. There could be an explanation for this, namely that Suter has now only paid part of the purchase price and the rest would only be due after BZM has been restructured.
As usual with company takeovers, it has been agreed to keep the sales price secret. What good is this phrase if the protagonists do everything they can through failed communication to keep the speculation going?
Where did Moritz Suter get the money, they ask, and who from the Basel Daig helped him? Or is the SVP father Blocher somehow involved after all? Rumors are flying and will continue to fill the columns for some time.
It will be interesting to see how Moritz Suter will restructure BZM. The already announced cost-cutting measures in the editorial department are unlikely to solve the problem, and even moving out of the feudal editorial offices will not be enough. The highly indebted print shop is the main problem. And finding a solution here on our own is likely to be difficult. Dear Zurichers and Aargauers, dress warmly if you want to invest in the region one day.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
