Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions ) Your first question comes from Jessica Reif-Cohen - Merrill Lynch.
Jessica Reif-Cohen - Merrill Lynch
I think you said that leverage at the end of the first quarter was 2.2 times, which is below your target leverage. Could you just talk about how you get to your target leverage? Your acquisitions so far seem to be very focused on high-growth online, but they have been relatively small. So could either of you discuss what kind of acquisitions you would consider?
As a sideline to that, the efforts that you've made so far online and driving your programming online, what impact do you expect that to have ultimately on your ratings and when?
Leslie Moonves
Let me deal with the general thing and, Fred, you can deal with the leverage. Obviously we are looking at online and this is a time of transition for us. While we are operating our businesses as effectively as we can, we have one eye on the future and what we're doing there. Revenues are growing substantially; however, we think that will continue and within a few years it will be a significant number on what we're doing in terms of revenue. Right now it is not.
How large an acquisition? Right now we have been relatively minor in what we've purchased and what we've invested in. They are all things that have fit within our businesses. We're looking at all sorts of acquisitions that would in fact be with new media and content possibilities. But once again, nothing that would be earth shattering and nothing that would be substantial in terms of dollar amounts.
Fred Reynolds
Clearly, we do not see an acquisition that is going to change our leverage ratio at this point. We look at a lot as Leslie said, we looked at over 140. We look everything that is out there but we are also very prudent on that.
I guess I would say to you as we did this year, if we see that there is no use for this cash and it builds up, then we're going to return it to shareholders in a smart and efficient way. I have said before that we're at the low, low end of our leverage ratio and we keep producing tremendous amounts of free cash flow, which is a good thing. So far we have been pretty good at returning the excess cash to shareholders. As Leslie mentioned, about $1.6 billion in four months. That is the plan right now.
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