Even with current levels of debt the money should be there to fund more focused and better resourced digital investment – if shareholders are persuaded to accept that the astonishing profit margins of the past will never return.
This makes Burda Digital the largest shareholder in XING.
Paul Saffo, an expert on Silicon Valley culture, says that traditional companies are owned by their shareholders but digital companies are in effect owned by their customers.
Arqiva, previously a 37% shareholder in Digital One, is understood to have paid a nominal sum for Global Radio's 63% stake.
The Times Company has registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a stock tracking the results of New York Times Digital and has won shareholder approval, but it has not set a date for the offering.
Mr Morris, who is King Digital's second-largest shareholder, will be replaced as chairman by board member Gerhard Florin.
The idea of a subsidiary was something that B&N had first floated back in January, when it noted that it was weighing up how best to separate its digital business to "maximize shareholder value".
Burns sensed the vagabonds' confusion, shook his head slowly, and explained that Carlton and Granada had a moral obligation to cough up because they were shareholders in ITV Digital, and that if they didn't, 30 clubs could go bankrupt.
Current shareholders in Saffron Digital include Beringea, NewSmith Capital and Duet Asset Management.
Or, there's the case of McGraw-Hill, which, with its publishing business flagging, saw pressure to right its sinking ship, go digital and increase returns to shareholders.
Digital Sky Technologies, a Facebook shareholder that's investing at least $50 million more, counts former partners of the bank among its executives.
