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Paxson sets course for S+
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April 30, 1997: 9:40 p.m. ET
ITT, Dow Jones expected to sell New York's WBIS + for $250 million
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Paxson Communications is expected to announce as early as next week its acquisition of New York's WBIS+ television station. And while the transaction is not yet official, the company's chairman seems confident of a deal.
"We have agreed on price," said Lowell "Bud" Paxson, speaking Wednesday on CNNfn's "Capital Ideas." The expected $250 million price tag could go higher or "could go lower," Paxson said.
"The lawyers are trying work out the contractual obligations and document the transactions," he said.
Newly acquired WBIS+ would operate as the New York-based flagship of a 50-station network that would have a presence in all 20 of the nation's largest television markets.
Paxson said he did not know if there were other bidders to buy the station from ITT Corp. and Dow Jones, who paid $207 million for it in 1995.
A sale of WBIS would mark the latest move taken by ITT to unload non-core assets as it tries to thwart a $6.5 billion hostile takeover attempt by rival Hilton Hotels Corp.
Dow Jones declined to comment on the sale. ITT also declined to comment, although company president Robert Bowman said in a conference call Tuesday that the company had received considerable interest in the station.
"The price that we're paying for it has nothing to do with what they paid for it." Paxson said. "I think that the price we're paying for it can be attributed to the value of a New York City television station."
Paxson Communications is primarily known for its infomercial programming, and tentative plans call for keeping only part of WBIS+'s mostly business and sports programming.
A current agreement has WBIS+ "carrying many of the local seven teams that surround New York and a lot of their games are going to be carried on WBIS, and we might very well continue that," Paxson said.
The fledgling network-to-be is already talking with major studios and syndicators about acquiring programming.
"We're in conversations with NBC and ABC and the Hearst people and Universal and Fox and others," Paxson said, "and we'll have to wait and see what kind of programming they want to put on the station."
But don't look for a new channel soon.
The transaction will not culminate for another two to three months, and the new network won't be up and running until the start of 1998, Paxson said.
Paxson shares closed unchanged Wednesday at 9 7/8. ITT rose 1/4 to 59 1/4, and Dow Jones inched up 1/4 at 40 1/2. 
--Will Morton
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