A Rebel News IPO? Please, God, make that happen. I will never ask for anything else.
P.S. Does no one remember Rebel Media's disastrous investment/retirement fund? Are there actually non-retarded people prepared to pump their life savings into a probable Ponzi scheme run by Ezra Levant?
Fuck.
UM ... is it possible that Ezra doesn't realize that an IPO means he would have to open the books for Rebel News? And reveal where all that money's been going? Can he possibly be that clueless? Does he seriously think that no one is going to ask, "Uh ... $375,000 for Keurig coffee pods? That seems a bit excessive."
6 comments:
Can't find that link, but would love to dig into it. Where is it hiding on the site?
As for the idea itself, well, sign me up? Who could refuse? After all, we're looking a media outlet with:
- a series of public statements acknowledging that their technical infrastructure is failing;
- a "journalism" shop reliant on begging to meet payroll or undertake travel
- a revenue generation that cannot, by the nature of its programming, include advertising or sponsorships
- the complete loss of any semblance of journalism capacity on their roster
- declining readership and donor base
- what must be dozens of litigations in progress, and some serious debt from prior rulings
- no capital, no equity
Sure, sign me up.
My guess? Even Ezra has to realize that there is simply no value in the only actual asset the Rebel has - its brand. If I were a cynic, I'd predict an initial "research and feasibility stage" in which potential shareholder are invited to contribute funds as their "investment" in future shares, to allow the Rebel to develop its strategic, operational, capital and business plan (i.e., to pay their bills until Ezra comes up with a new grift). The IPO will teeter along on the brink of possibility until Ezra extracts every last penny he can from every last dupe, then disappear with the Rebel goes bankrupt.
Link to Ezra proposing an IPO?
https://www.rebelnews.com/ezra_levant_show_july_22_2021
Just scroll down.
I have zero sympathy for the rubes he fleeces.
If I were being a douchebag like Levant, an IPO would be an end game move, done when I thought Rebel Media was reaching the end of the road. I'd pocket as much of the money as possible from the IPO. Then somewhere between the point when the investors tried to change Rebel into something like a real media outlet with normal revenue sources, and the point where they realized the Rebel brand was unsalvageable, I'd leave with the money and start something new.
Let’s consider how he could make an IPO look _ALMOST_ legitimate for a second:
First, Ezra splits “The Rebel” into 4 companies:
Rebel News ->. Basically gets all of the current “media personalities” they’ve cultivated to run around and act as agitators.
Rebel Productions ->. Becomes the publisher / producer side of things, does all the editing, and production work, and possibly owns publication as well
Rebel Fundraising ->. This is the home for all of the fundraisers.
Rebel Holdings ->. The holding company for the entire operation.
Move all of the dodgy stuff into Rebel Holding’s books, and let that be the privately held company. It then retains majority stakes in the other three, while parts of them become the IPO. Most of the money moves around via transfers to / from Rebel Holdings, which acts as both money laundering and financial control, while remaining opaque to outside scrutiny.
Ezra retains control of the resulting company, and the rubes buy up the shares in the other companies who “do business” with each other like one of Caligula’s orgies … and Ezra sneaks out the back door with a bagful of cash.
If this sounds vaguely Trumpian, you’re right - it is. One of the things I learned in 2015/16 was that Trump’s businesses were a virtual web of money laundering, with transactions moving money between private and public entities between them, making it all but impossible to make sense of the books of any one public entity.
Problem is, there isn't one revenue stream in that whole bundle that shows the slightest likelihood of any return on investment.
I note that in Ezra's recent morose note on staffing and expansion, he listed a number of positions that pretty much divide his own role into a couple of different hats. That suggests to me he's desperately trying to slather lipstick on this pig and get out with whatever he can salvage before the whistle blows or the roof falls in.
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