Greek-born billionaire John Catsimatidis wants to buy an embattled CNN from Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Donald Trump-supporting grocery mogul said he would “go run the place tomorrow morning and all I’d want is $1 per year.”
Falling ratings have hit the news network, and earlier this week, under-fire CEO Chris Licht was fired after a searing profile in The Atlantic.
74-year-old Catsimatidis refused to tell the newspaper how much he would be willing to offer for the media outlet.
“It’s up to the investment bankers to come up with the numbers,” he said, suggesting that finance to complete the deal would not be an issue.
“We could always bring partners in, but I want to run the place,” he continued. “We are capable of putting down a substantial amount of money.”
And he added: “I’d go run the place tomorrow morning, and all I’d want is $1 per year and a piece of the upside.”
Mr Catsimatidis, who has a reported personal wealth of more than $4bn, is already in the media business having bought New York’s WABC radio station for $12.5m in 2019.
“Whoever is running that company is wrong,” Mr Catsimatidis said, telling the newspaper the network should not have fired Mr Licht, who supported the controversial Donald Trump town hall.
“If the network is getting half a million (viewers) a night and they have Trump on and they get 3 million (viewers), to fire the CEO for getting that many people…” he said.
But he insisted that if took over CNN he would continue to try and ensure that Republicans got equal coverage to Democrats.
“I want the truth, not opinions. If people say there’s two truths, let’s voice both truths and let the viewers decide.”
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