American Idled

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The wildly successful American Idol isn't going away -- but your ability to buy a piece of the company behind the show is. CKX (Nasdaq: CKXE), the company that acquired American Idol parent 19 Entertainment two years ago, is done playing to fickle Wall Street audiences. A group of executives will buy the company out at $13.75 a share.

Booting out shareholders the way Simon Cowell loves to toss bad singers, the all-cash deal values the company at a nearly 30% premium to yesterday's close.

CKX was an obscure company until it acquired both 19 Entertainment and the licensing rights to Elvis Presley in early 2005. Those two juggernauts should have gone together like banana cream on a PBJ sandwich, but the market never caught on to the CKX story.

The company has had some success. Last month, it posted first-quarter results that included earnings of $0.03 a share on a 21% revenue surge. Things were even more impressive in 2006, with revenues soaring 74%, as CKX reversed a steep 2005 deficit to earn $0.08 per share. 

Thanks to the company's musical interests in popular Idol contestants, CKX is a growing force in the industry, even as major labels such as Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) continue to struggle. Majority stakes in the licensing rights of Presley's estate and Muhammad Ali are welcome gravy. Yes, there is grace in running Graceland -- as well as the adjacent Heartbreak Hotel.

One can argue that CKX is getting away cheap. Wouldn't Gaylord Entertainment (NYSE: GET) want in on the Elvis assets? A major label or a concert promoter like Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) would love a crack at 19 Entertainment.

However, CKX earned its reclusive lifestyle. Did you ever see an earnings press release from the company? I had to dig for the financials within the company's SEC filings. It was as if CKX was shy about its talented singing voice -- or simply knew that a management-led buyout was its ultimate destiny, and never aspired to get too pricey.

Oh, well. Take a bow, then, you hound dog, you.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz once had his band signed to Sony's Columbia Records label. It didn't exactly pan out. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.