In the year since he sold the
Washington Post
to Jeff Bezos, Donald Graham has devoted most of his efforts to “extricating himself from the
Post
,”
the
New York Times
reported.
He sold the company’s headquarters for $158 million, said he would sell its art collection to raise money for his scholarship fund and offered voluntary retirement packages to corporate employees, the article said. Graham’s company, which has been renamed Graham Holdings, generated $3.48 billion in revenue in 2013. In the most recent quarter, revenue was largely flat at $878.6 million, the
Times
report said.
Friends of Graham’s told the
Times
that Graham has been “reshaping his company based on the philosophy of Warren E. Buffett, a longtime friend and former board member of the
Post.
” Buffet, who sold his $1.1 billion stake in Graham Holdings in exchange for one of the company’s television stations, still advises Graham, the
Times
article said.
Graham Holdings has added to its portfolio “several unglamorous but profitable businesses,” including a screw jack manufacturer and a home health care business, the
Times
report noted. Carl Salas of Moody’s Investor Service told the
Times
that this asset mix is similar to Berkshire Hathaway’s approach: investing in companies that are largely run by the existing management.
Graham has also started a scholarship fund for undocumented immigrants, TheDream.US Scholarship, and his family members have gotten involved with the fund.
Jacob Weisberg, chairman of the Slate Group, which is owned by Graham Holdings, told the
Times
that Graham “has had a big burden lifted off him and he is very focused on looking forward and not back. It was a very happy resolution to a very difficult problem.” (Source:
New York Times
, Aug. 4, 2014.)
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