While they were putting their houses in order, their healthier foreign rivals went on acquisition sprees.
All three have gone on acquisition sprees, in an attempt to lead the market.
It was a chaotic time for independent publishers, as large multinational companies went on acquisition sprees, swallowing up smaller publishers, and many independent firms became units of media giants.
Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu (China's answer to Google) have gone on acquisition sprees to prepare for a battle royal, and this is eroding margins: Tencent reported disappointing earnings this week.
Large telephone companies, whether AT&T or France Télécom, went on acquisition binges, pushing up the values of the small companies being bought and creating mountains of debt that now haunt them.
Two home-grown real estate companies, SL Green Realty Corporation and Tower Realty Trust, each formed a REIT (pronounced reet) and sold shares to the public for the first time last year, and then went on acquisition sprees.
Went on acquisition binge, expanding into plastics, chemicals, concrete.
"We have a lot of things going on, including some possible new acquisitions coming kind of soon," Mr. Brill said yesterday.
Further accelerated debt payment doesn't seem to be a massive focus, with the company more interested in having the resources on tap to hit go on acquisitions, if it feels they are worthy.
And talking of consolidation, is Local World thinking of going on the acquisition trail?
