Backtracking stock

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/16/2000

Emmis Communications had planned to announce the creation of a tracking stock last week to separate its TV and radio holdings. But given recent market conditions, the plan has been delayed, Emmis Chairman Jeff Smulyan acknowledges. "We're still studying it," Smulyan says. "But when you look at radio valuations that have dropped like a lead balloon you've got to re-evaluate." The company is still mulling whether the TV or radio assets would be spun off. "Right now investors don't seem to want either one so it makes it a little tougher," he notes. The reaction from Wall Street was that the company made the right move in delaying any decision. "The market is just too volatile right now," says one company follower.