NY Times courting potential Red Sox buyers-Connors, Nicholas

"New York Times Co has begun courting former advertising executive Jack Connors as a potential bidder to buy its stake in the Boston Red Sox team and possibly The Boston Globe newspaper, the Financial Times reported on Friday, as the publisher tries to raise cash to support its struggling business.

The Times's 17.5 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures also has attracted the attention of

• Peter Nicholas, chairman and co-founder of medical devices maker Boston Scientific, the FT reported on Friday, citing a source familiar with the matter...

Connors, a former Boston advertising executive, was part of a group two years ago that was interested in buying the Globe. The group included former General Electric Co Chief Executive Jack Welch. The Times rejected that offer.

• At the Time, the New York Times Co according to the FT and other news outlets, could have sold the Globe for $550 million to $600 million. But a recent report from Barclays estimated that the Globe could be worth about $20 million....

Potential bidders, which the FT did not name in its report, are considering the idea of merging the Globe with the Ottaway newspaper chain -- small daily papers owned by Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co and now part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

• The Ottaway papers are run by the recently hired Patrick Purcell, who owns and publishes the Globe's rival daily in Boston, the Herald. Under the scenario,
• that paper would be shut down, the FT reported."...

FT report, 12/27

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