MSG exploring split

SLICE & DICE: Madison Square Garden Co. is considering a split that would make its entertainment businesses one entity and its media and sports operations another, The Wall Street Journal reports. “Investors favor companies with greater strategic focus on their core businesses,” MSG President/CEO Tad Smith said of the increasingly common practice of companies cleaving themselves in two, as the WSJ poetically puts it. The move would, for example, separate Knicks President Phil Jackson from Azoff MSG Entertainment Chairman/CEO Irving Azoff, who orchestrated Jackson’s hiring. According to Smith, live entertainment company “would capitalize on significant opportunities to grow rapidly within the changing entertainment landscape,” while the sports and media company “would enjoy steady growth and high cash flow that we expect will result in capital returns to shareholders,” who would own shares in both new companies. MSG also announced that it is nominating “activist investor” Nelson Peltz and T.H. Lee Co-President Scott Sperling (remember him?) to the board, but it has once again passed over Sinead O’Connor. (10/28a)