Univision is bleeding money

Univision Reveals Write-Down of Struggling Gizmodo Media Group Assets

The company reported that the assets lost $32.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Univision is acknowledging the financial weakness of the Gizmodo Media Group digital media assets the company has purchased over the last few years, including the former Gawker Media Group publications it picked up in the summer of 2016.

"In 2018, we recognized a non-cash impairment charge on our English-language digital assets," a company spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the company reported that its English-language digital businesses, which includes The Onion, lost $32.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to just $3 million in the same quarter a year earlier. But the losses were even greater in the third quarter of 2018, with the company reporting a loss of $96.1 million for the U.S. digital brands.

Univision is still looking for a buyer for the Gizmodo Media Group properties, which the company still believes to be strong.

"Our English-language digital brands are longstanding, recognized sources of news, information and entertainment in their verticals that we believe can thrive as part of a company whose focus better aligns with theirs," the Univision spokesperson said.

The spokesperson declined comment when asked about the status of the company's acquisition talks, but a media executive familiar with the company said the weak financials and the broader struggles in the digital media industry don't bode well.

"They haven't been able to get anyone to buy it and in this environment, things aren't promising," the executive said.

BuzzFeed and Vice Media have both recently undergone painful rounds of cost-cutting as they strive for profitability.

A Gizmodo Media Group employee told THR that staff have not been updated in months about the status of the sales talks.

While the transaction was not announced at the time, Univision revealed in a finding that it spent $28.7 million in September 2018 to purchase the stake in The Onion that it did not already own. A source speculated that the buy was made to be able to sell The Onion as a whole entity.

Although a buyer has emerged, industry analyst Ken Doctor said there's a lot to like about the Gizmodo Media Group properties, which he said command "passionate, niche audiences" and a solid e-commerce business based on product recommendations.

"Given those two factors, I can see a buyer taking on the properties and rationalizing them," Doctor said, though they may only fetch a "fire sale price."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/univision-reveals-write-down-struggling-gizmodo-media-group-assets-1186776

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Notable: EXCLUSIVE: Audit Finds Signs of Fraud in New Mexico House Race

An audit of absentee ballots suggests fraud may have occurred in one of the closest House races in the country, The Daily Signal has learned.

Democrat Xochitl Torres Small squeaked by Republican Yvette Herrell in the final results of the Nov. 6 election.

On election night, Herrell declared victory in the race to represent New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District. But as more votes were counted, Torres Small secured the win.

The roughly 3,500-vote victory for Torres Small—out of about 200,000 cast in the southern New Mexico district—relied heavily on absentee ballots from Doña Ana County, the largest county in the district, including the Las Cruces area.

A new audit report obtained by The Daily Signal alleges a “concerted effort” to push for absentee votes where New Mexico voter ID laws are not enforced. It also points to potential fraud in applying for absentee ballots, and says a significant number of absentee ballots were time-stamped after the 7 p.m. deadline election night.

The report was prepared for the losing Herrell campaign by Full Compliance Consulting LLC and Herrell campaign lawyer Carter B. Harrison.

Herrell’s campaign is not contesting the outcome of the 2018 contest, but sought the review based on its concerns that extra votes appeared to pour in.

Torres Small spokeswoman Jennifer Lee did not respond to phone and email inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story.

Torres Small, 34, who was sworn in Jan. 3, replaced retiring Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican who was re-elected by 26 points in 2016.

The House seat has been held by a Republican for all but one term since 1968.

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, won the district by 10 points over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The report says the consulting firm reviewed about 12,000 requests for absentee ballots, 8,577 outer envelopes for absentee ballots, and hundreds of rejected applications from Doña Ana County.

“There were not enough irregularities in Dona Ana County alone to alter our race (though local races could have been altered),” Harrison, the Herrell campaign lawyer, told The Daily Signal in a written response. “But if other counties were to be found to have similar irregularities, the race certainly could have been altered by them.”

On election night, media outlets called the race for Herrell, 54, who has been a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives since 2011.

But well after midnight, Harrison said, the office of New Mexico’s secretary of state informed the Herrell campaign of 4,000 absentee ballots in Doña Ana County still to be counted, which would not have flipped the race to Torres Small, who previously had not held elective office.

Full article here: https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/02/15/exclusive-audit-finds-signs-of-fraud-in-new-mexico-house-race/