Financing Media, Information, and Communications

Abstract

How are companies, products and projects funded? The chapter first covers internal funding and self-financing. It then moves to debt financing—senior and subordinated debt, commercial paper, corporate bonds and so on. Also discussed are other types of debt: securitization; vendor, buyer and lease financing; and government loans. The chapter then moves to the various types of equity financing: limited partnerships in films and technology, private equity, angels, crowd-sourcing, venture capital and initial public offerings (IPOs). The last part of the chapter investigates media ownership and its impact on content—by individuals, institutional investors and governments. The concluding section deals with the question of a capital structure that is optimal for company operations and value. These themes are tracked in the case discussion, which compares the financing options available to an established media firm (Time Warner) and to a startup.