Is This the End of Plum TV?
Plum TV, the "resort network" founded by Tom Scott (left), is now in talks to raise additional capital or even sell the company entirely, according to today's Post. The paper says the high-end (but lightly-viewed) network is in discussions with "a number of potential suitors [who] have developed a taste for Plum TV." We're hearing a slightly different story from a Plum staffer, however. The company is hemorraging cash, we're told, and has been busy cutting costs as of late: staff has been cut and expensive shoots have been cancelled. So today's news that Plum is talking with potential investors including Barry Diller's IAC, Terry Semel's investment fund, and Teddy Forstmann's IMG may very well signal that a fire sale is taking place.
Plum has amassed a ridiculously long list list of big backers since it was founded in 2002: Ex-Viacom CEO Tom Freston, former AOL honcho-turned-Internet investor Bob Pittman, singer Jimmy Buffett, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, record exec Jason Flom, hotelier Barry Sternlicht, fashion designer Kate Spade, and hedge funder James Pallotta, among others. Scott, who made his first fortune when he sold Nantucket Nectars to Cadbury Schweppes in 2002 for $100 million, has himself poured in a good deal of capital, too. But despite the mountains of cash and an aggressive expansion plan—the company now has channels in the Hamptons, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Vail, Aspen, Telluride, Sun Valley, and Miami—it has never managed to turn a profit.
If the company fails to find a buyer (or someone willing to put cash into the money-losing venture), more than 100 people could lose their jobs. But Plum employees and investors wouldn't be the only ones to feel the pain. The network remains one of the few outlets for the very rich but not especially TV-genic, so a Plum closure will mean that Jon Tisch (who hosts Plum's Open Exchange) and Pat Duff (Duff Talk) will have to find something else to do with their spare time.
