Thursday, September 23, 2004
Marge Schott's share of Reds sold
Crest on Apprentice
Marge Schott's ownership of the Cincinnati Reds will officially end Friday.
Schott's estate will sell her one-fifteenth stake in the team to the other owners for $6.1 million, said Bob Martin, Schott's trust attorney. The deal is expected to close Friday.
The transfer had been expected since Schott died March 2 at age 75. In her will, she gave most of the estimated $100 million value of the estate to the charitable foundation established by Schott and her late husband. The proceeds of the Reds share sale will go there.
The sale isn't expected to affect the day-to-day operations of the Reds or to significantly change the ownership stakes of the other owners. They include club Chief Executive Officer Carl Lindner, George Strike, William Reik, Louise Nippert and Gannett Co., which also owns the Enquirer.
Schott was controlling owner of the Reds from 1984 to 1999. That year, she was forced by Major League Baseball to sell her controlling shares to the ownership group led by Lindner for $67 million.
For sale
COVINGTON - It appears the Madison Theater here will soon have a new owner.
Theater owner Madison Entertainment LLC, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since June, has a $1.2 million offer for the property at 728 and 730 Madison Ave. in hand and has asked the court to supervise an auction.
The sale wouldn't pay off about $3 million in debt, but it would keep the theater open, said Dave Kruer, attorney for Madison Entertainment and its controlling member, Esther Johnson.
Kruer would not identify the buyer. But an entity called Light Years Ahead LLC has signed a letter of intent for $1.2 million, plus another $10,000 for the theater's liquor license, according to papers filed in bankruptcy court.
Light Years Ahead LLC is not registered on the Kentucky secretary of state's Internet site.
Kruer said Johnson was not associated with the buyer.
Johnson wouldn't comment except to say, "We're working on something." She said business was continuing, with shows including Irish band The Commitments on Friday.
Financial statements filed in bankruptcy court this week show the theater earned $3,152 in August on sales of $25,349.
Madison Entertainment put a $750,000 value on the buildings in bankruptcy papers, but "as a going concern, it should be worth more than that," Kruer said.
Johnson bought the theater, which had been shut down for years, in 1989 for $1. After a $3 million restoration that was partly financed by loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration and the city of Covington, she reopened it as a concert venue.
Brush for profits
It won't be long after contestants on
P&G is shipping the product for availability Friday morning. Already, the company says, retailers have ordered enough toothpaste to justify a product placement fee that reportedly cost P&G $1 million.
"This is not a test," said Crest spokesman Bryan McCleary, who appears on tonight's episode. "This is not a simulation. This is not a prototype. This is reality."
