Kennedy is the chairman of Cox Enterprises, a closely held media and automotive services conglomerate. The Atlanta-based business controls the third-biggest cable operator in the U.S., which serves about 6 million homes and businesses. He owns almost one-quarter of the group, which had sales of $21 billion in 2018.
Jim Kennedy's net worth of $9.28B can buy ...
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Kennedy is a grandson of James Cox, who founded Cox Enterprises. He owns almost 25% of the company; his sister, Blair Parry-Okeden, owns an equivalent share. They inherited their stake from their mother, Barbara Cox Anthony. Ownership is based on court documents and Cox's disclosure to Bloomberg that internal transactions resulted in equal stakes among the two owner families.
Cox Enterprises had revenue of $21 billion in 2018, according to the company. It has three units: Cox Communications, Cox Media Group and Cox Automotive.
Cable company Cox Communications is the third-largest cable operator in the U.S., and had revenue of $11.9 billion in 2018 according to the company's website. It's valued using the average enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiple of three publicly traded peer companies: Comcast, Verizon, and Rogers Communications.
Cox Media Group operates six daily newspapers, 14 broadcast television stations and more than 60 radio stations, among other assets, and had revenue of $1.6 billion in 2018, according to its website and information provided by the company. Its valuation is based on the average enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiple of five publicly traded peers: EW Scripps, New York Times, Gannett, McClatchy and Sinclair Broadcast and is discounted by 15%.
Cox Automotive is a provider of car sales software technology. It had revenue of $7.5 billion in 2018 according to a spokesperson. Cox Automotive is valued on the average enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiples of KAR Auction Services, CarMax and Penske Automotive.
Kennedy's 25% share of corporate-level debt is included as a liability. The debt figure used in the analysis was reduced on Feb. 14, 2020 and this led an increase in the calculation of about $500 million.
Joanna Coker, a Cox group spokesperson, provided revenue figures in April 2019 without providing further comment on the net worth calculation.
James Cox Kennedy is the grandson of James M. Cox, who founded Cox Enterprises after buying the Dayton Evening News in 1898. Cox became a politician, serving first as an Ohio state representative, then as governor. In 1920, he ran for the U.S. presidency as a Democrat, losing to fellow newspaper publisher Warren G. Harding.
Following his death in 1957, Cox's two daughters, Anne Cox Chambers and Barbara Cox Anthony -- Kennedy's mother -- took control of Cox Enterprises, which had diversified into television and radio. Chambers became the chairwoman of the company's Atlanta newspapers division, which owned the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Anthony's husband, James, took the top position in the company.
Kennedy began working at Cox Enterprises in 1972, two years after graduating from the University of Denver. He started out as a newspaper production assistant and worked his way up to general manager. In 1985, he was made vice president of Cox Newspapers. He was appointed chairman and CEO three years later. Today, Cox Enterprises operates dozens of print publications, television stations and radio stations as well as one of largest cable systems in the U.S. and multiple online auto marketing and data units.
In 2003, he and wife Sarah were named Philanthropists of the Year by the Greater Atlanta Chapter of the Association for Fund-raising Professionals. He enjoys cycling and hunting on his family's conservation-protected property.