Cox Enterprises

From SourceWatch
Jump to navigation Jump to search
ALECexposed-80px.png

Learn more about corporations VOTING to rewrite our laws.

Cox Enterprises is a family-owned, U.S. media conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It is one of the nations largest media companies and is also a provider of automotive services. According to Hoovers business website it "publishes 17 daily newspapers (including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and about 25 non-dailies (weeklies and shoppers) and owns 15 TV stations through Cox Television. It also owns Cox Communications (which was a public company until a Cox Enterprises buyout in late 2004), one of the US's largest cable systems with more than 6 million subscribers. Other operations include 95% of Cox Radio, owner of about 80 radio stations in nearly 20 markets; Manheim, which sells 10 million vehicles through auctions worldwide; and a majority stake in AutoTrader.com." [1]

Family member Anne Cox Chambers has a personal fortune of $12.6 billion and is listed in Forbes in position 24 for U.S. billionaires. [2]

In 2007, the company had 83,000 employees with revenues of US$15 billion.[3] Top competitors are Comcast, Gannett, and New York Times. [1]

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Cox Communications has been a corporate funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and a member of ALEC's Telecommunications Tax Force[4], a "Trustee" level sponsor of 2011 ALEC Annual Conference[5] ($5,000 in 2010)[6] and member of Louisiana Host Committee[7]. See ALEC Corporations for more.

About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Cox internet subscribers blocked

Peter Svensson wrote in USA Today in May 2008, "Cox Communications appears to be interfering with file-sharing by its Internet subscribers in the same manner that has landed Comcast Corp. in hot water with regulators, according to research obtained by The Associated Press.

"A study based on the participation of 8,175 Internet users around the world found conclusive signs of blocked file-sharing connections only at three Internet service providers: Comcast and Cox in the U.S. and StarHub in Singapore.

"Of the 788 Comcast subscribers who participated in the study, 491, or 62%, had their connections blocked. At Cox, 82 out of 151 subscribers, or 54%, were blocked, according to Krishna Gummadi at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Saarbruecken, Germany."

"Consumer advocate groups and legal scholars criticized the interference, saying that letting an ISP selectively block some connections makes it a gatekeeper to the Internet. Their complaints prompted the Federal Communications Commission to launch an investigation, which is ongoing.

"Legislation also has been introduced in Congress to guarantee "Net Neutrality," or equal treatment of traffic by Internet service providers." [8]

Operating companies

  • Cox Communications, Inc. - broadband communications company with 6.2 million residential and commercial customers. The third-largest cable television company in the U.S.
  • Manheim Auto Auction - Cox bought the auto auction company in 1968 and it is now the highest volume operator of wholesale auto auctions in the world with 145 worldwide locations. Cox also owns Cox Auto Trader, one of the world’s largest providers of online and print automotive consumer information
  • Cox Newspapers - one of the country's largest newspaper-publishing companies
  • Cox Television - Cox entered television in 1948 and now owns 15 TV stations and also operates three national television advertising firms
  • Cox Radio - one of the largest radio companies in the U.S. When previously announced transactions are complete, Cox Radio will own operate or provide sales and marketing services for 86 stations.[9]

Lobbying

The company spent $4,160,000 for lobbying in 2007, $600,000 of which went to three outside lobbying firms - Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Timmons and Company, and Ernst & Young. [10]

Personnel

Cox Communications

Manheim

Cox Newspapers

Cox Auto Trader

  • Sanford Schwartz, President , Cox Auto Trader

Cox Television

Cox Radio

Contact details

Attn: Corporate Communications
6205 Peachtree Dunwoody Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30328
Phone: (678) 645-0000
Web: http://www.coxenterprises.com

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Cox Enterprises Profile, Hoovers, accessed June 2008.
  2. Anne Cox Chambers, "Forbes", accessed June 2008.
  3. Company Overview, Cox Enterprises, accessed June 2008.
  4. American Legislative Exchange Council, American Legislative Exchange Council Telecommunications & Information Technology as of July 18th, 2011, organizational task force membership director, July 18, 2011, p. 22, obtained and released by Common Cause April 2012
  5. American Legislative Exchange Council, 2011 Conference Sponsors, conference brochure on file with CMD, August 4, 2011
  6. American Legislative Exchange Council, /AM/Template.cfm?Section=Sponsorship_Opportunities Sponsorship Opportunities at ALEC's Annual Meeting, organizational website, 2010, archived on the Wayback Machine, accessed January 24, 2012
  7. American Legislative Exchange Council, "Solutions for the States," 38th Annual Meeting agenda, on file with CMD, August 3-6, 2011
  8. Peter Svensson, "Cox, Comcast Net subscribers blocked", "USA Today", May 15, 2008.
  9. Operating companies, Cox Enterprises, accessed June 2008.
  10. Cox Enterprises lobbying expenses, Open Secrets, accessed June 2008.
  11. Management, Cox Enterprises, accessed June 2008.