Randy Smith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Randall Duncan Smith 1942 (age 81–82) |
| Education | Cornell University (BA) University of Pennsylvania (MBA) |
| Spouses |
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| Relatives | Russ Smith (brother) |
Randall Duncan "Randy" Smith (born 1942) is an American hedge fund manager, and the founder and chief of investments of Alden Global Capital. Smith is known as a pioneer of vulture capitalism, the purchase and dismantling of distressed firms. [1]
Smith was born in 1942. [2] He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 1965, followed by an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. [3] [2]
His younger brother Russ Smith founded the Baltimore City Paper and the Washington City Paper , which he sold for $4 million, and in 1989 founded the New York Press. [2]
Smith was a partner at Bear Stearns from 1975 to 1996, where he founded the convertible arbitrage department and later focused on investing in distressed assets. [3] [4]
He started his first investment firm at home while still working for Bear Stearns, with $20,000 he and his wife[ clarification needed ] won in the late 1960s on Dream House , a television game show. [2]
In 1998, Smith acquired the Bryan Tower, a 40-story downtown office building in Dallas, Texas. His son Caleb Smith oversaw the renovation for his father's company Spire Realty, which he now runs. [5]
In 2002, together with his second wife Barbara (a Houston native), and his brother Jeffrey Smith, Randy Smith bought the historic 100-room 1924 Sam Houston Hotel, extensively remodelled it, and reopened it in 2005 as the Alden Hotel. [2] In 2010, the ownership of the Alden Houston formally transferred to Northwood Investors. [6] In 2012, Northwood sold the hotel to American Liberty Hospitality and Gentry Mills Capital and returned to its original name as The Sam Houston Hotel. [7]
Smith and his wife Barbara own sixteen residential investment properties in the Palm Beach, Florida area through limited liability companies, properties from which they draw rental income. [8]
In 2007, Smith founded Alden Global Capital, and is its chief of investments. [3] As of May 2021, Alden Global is the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States. [9] [10] [11]
Alden has a reputation for sharply cutting costs by reducing the number of journalists working on its newspapers. [10] [11] [12] [13]
The New York Times , in a 1991 article titled "Bottom Fishing with R.D. Smith" reported on conflicts of interest while Smith was at Bear Stearns. [14]
In 2005, Smith settled claims from a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee associated with an investment in Hawaiian Airlines. [15]
Writing in The Atlantic , McKay Coppins has criticized Smith and Alden co-founder Heath Freeman, saying "no one has been more mercenary or less interested in pretending to care about their publications’ long-term health." [1]
He met his first wife Kathryn Smith, when both were Cornell students, and she earned a PhD in political science. [2] They have a son, Caleb Smith, who was profiled in 2011 in the Dallas-based D Magazine, and a daughter, Abigail (d. 2018). [2] [5] Kathryn Smith died of ovarian cancer. [5]
He is married to Barbara Stovall Smith.
The Baltimore Sun is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news.
The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury, its headquarters on Broad Street in Hartford, Connecticut was a short walk from the state capitol. It reports regional news with a chain of bureaus in smaller cities and a series of local editions. It also operates CTNow, a free local weekly newspaper and website.
The Salt Lake Tribune is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The Tribune is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871."
Distressed securities are securities over companies or government entities that are experiencing financial or operational distress, default, or are under bankruptcy. As far as debt securities, this is called distressed debt. Purchasing or holding such distressed-debt creates significant risk due to the possibility that bankruptcy may render such securities worthless.
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The Santa Cruz Sentinel is a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California, covering Santa Cruz County, California, and owned by Media News Group, which is controlled by Alden Global Capital.
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The Sun, also known as The Lowell Sun, is a daily newspaper based in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, serving towns in Massachusetts around the Greater Lowell area and beyond. As of 2011, its average daily circulation was about 42,900 copies. It is owned by MediaNews Group of Colorado, which is owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
The Virginian-Pilot is the daily newspaper for Hampton Roads, Virginia. Commonly known as The Pilot, it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. It was a locally owned, family enterprise from its founding in 1865 at the close of the American Civil War until its sale to Tribune Publishing in 2018. Its headquarters is in Newport News, and prior to 2020 was in Norfolk.
Tribune Publishing Company is an American newspaper print and online media publishing company. The company, which was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May 2021, has a portfolio that includes the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Orlando Sentinel, South Florida's Sun-Sentinel, The Virginian-Pilot, the Hartford Courant, additional titles in Pennsylvania and Virginia, syndication operations, and websites. It also publishes several local newspapers in its metropolitan regions, which are organized in subsidiary groups.
The Sentinel & Enterprise is a morning daily newspaper published in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, with a satellite news bureau in Leominster, Massachusetts. The newspaper covers local news in Fitchburg, Leominster and several nearby towns in northern Worcester County and northwest Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is owned by MediaNews Group of Colorado., which is owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.
Style Weekly is an online alternative media outlet that was previously an alternative weekly newspaper started in November 1982 for news, arts, culture and opinion in Richmond, Virginia.
Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP is a full service law firm with offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., and London. The number of attorneys practicing at the firm globally is approximately 320 as of 2020, down from approximately 375 attorneys in 2013.
The Sam Houston Hotel is a historic hotel in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States that is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel received its listing on April 17, 2002.
MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States-based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 assorted other publications.
PJT Partners, Inc. is a global advisory-focused investment bank, founded in October 2015 as part of The Blackstone Group's spin-off of its financial and strategic advisory services businesses. The firm was founded by Paul J Taubman after his 30-year tenure at Morgan Stanley, where he served as Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions, Global Head of Investment Banking and until the end of 2012, Co-President of the Institutional Securities Group, which included Investment Banking as well as Sales and Trading.
Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith, and is a division of Smith Management LLC. Its managing director is Heath Freeman. By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two hundred American newspapers. The company added more newspapers to its portfolio in May 2021 when it purchased Tribune Publishing and became the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States.
Mudrick Capital Management is an American investment firm and vulture fund specializing in special situations and event driven investing that include investing in distressed securities. The firm was founded by Jason Mudrick, its current Chief Investment Officer, in 2009. The firm is located in New York City and, as of June 2022, managed approximately $3.3 billion in assets.
Heath Freeman is the managing director of Alden Global Capital, the owner of Digital First Media, and runs its daily operations. Freeman is said to be publicity-shy but has attracted national interest because of his role at Alden which as of May 2021 owns the second-largest portfolio of American newspapers, second only to Gannett. He has been described as "aggressive and highly intelligent," and “flinty-eyed and focused."
Anchorage Capital Group is an American investment management firm based in New York City. The firm is known as one of the world's most prominent vulture funds, which are funds that invest in distressed securities.