CBS Subpoenas 5 Brokerage Firms on Stock : Seeks to Learn Turner’s Role in Recent Trading

CBS Inc., which has been threatened with a takeover by a conservative group objecting to the alleged “liberal bias” of its news division, has obtained subpoenas for five brokerage firms to determine who was involved in recent heavy trading of the company’s stock.

Subpoenas requesting documents about trading in CBS stock on Feb. 28 and March 1 were sent last Monday to Jefferies & Co. of Los Angeles; Goldman, Sachs & Co., Dillon, Read & Co. and J. Streicher & Co., all of New York City, and Goetz, Batchker & Co. of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., a CBS spokeswoman said Friday.

On Feb. 28, 259,400 shares of CBS stock were traded on the New York Stock Exchange, while on March 1, nearly 1.26 million of the company’s shares changed hands. The price of CBS’ stock rose $7 over the two days, closing March 1 at $88.50. The stock closed Friday also at $88.50, up $2.125.

In mid-January, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Fairness in Media, a North Carolina-based conservative group, launched a drive for control of New York-based CBS, asking supporters to buy the network’s stock.

Respond by Monday

Cable-television entrepreneur Ted Turner subsequently acknowledged that his lawyers had been talking to the Federal Communications Commission, but he refused to confirm or deny that he is considering trying to take over CBS.

The subpoenas were sent “to discover the extent of Ted Turner’s involvement in Fairness in Media’s takeover interests,” the CBS spokeswoman said. The brokerage firms are required to respond by Monday.

Goldman, Sachs lawyer Joseph McLaughlin said the company had received the subpoena.

“We responded as we do to other subpoenas,” he said. “It’s purely routine.”

A spokesman for Jefferies & Co. was unavailable for comment. Dillon, Read & Co.’s lawyer, Stuart Sindell, said he wasn’t aware of any subpoena. The other two firms declined to comment.

At a pretrial hearing in New York on Thursday in an anti-takeover suit filed by CBS against Fairness in Media, U.S. District Judge William C. Conner let stand a subpoena issued to Turner.

Conner urged CBS and Fairness in Media to reach an agreement that would provide a list of CBS shareholders to Hoover Adams, a CBS stockholder who supports Fairness in Media.