Final Nail In The Coffin?

Who better to complete the financial ruin of the New York Times (parent company of the Boston Globe, AKA the Boring Broadsheet) than the most overrated, headline grabbing, self-promoting U.S. businessman of the past thirty years, Captain Combover?

Billionaire Donald Trump wants it known that he really, really wants to buy The New York Times (NYT +0.23%) even though the paper is not for sale -- and even if it were, the Sulzberger family, which has owned it for more than a century, probably would never sell it to him in a billion years.

"I have watched Mr. Trump over the years navigate much tougher acquisitions," writes Michael Cohen, a Trump spokesman. "Mr. Trump is so smart and so rich that if he wants it, he will get it. If Mr. Trump elects to purchase the NY Times, commits his time and resources, there is nothing he can’t do."

Shares of the company, which also owns the Boston Globe, were barely budging on the news, indicating that Wall Street isn't holding its breath for a deal to happen. A spokesperson for the Times couldn't immediately be reached.

Probably because the spokesperson is still laughing. Aside from my own feeling of same, skepticism is seeping out:

I could question just who are the “sources familiar with the situation” that served up this scoop, and whether they were authorized by the notoriously publicity-hungry Trump to leak it to an outlet of repute and thereby win him another day of fleeting relevance.

If, however, you're rooting for someone to run a company or two or more into the ground, and overpay for it at the same time, you got your man, Pinchy! Make the deal!