25 April 2016•Update: 28 April 2016
By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
Media giant Gannett, publisher of the USA Today newspaper, on Monday offered $815M to purchase Tribune Publishing, owner of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.
Tribune Publishing, based in Chicago, also publishes the Baltimore Sun and seven other daily newspapers around the United States.
Gannett made the public bid after the Tribune refused to negotiate prices in private meetings. The announcement pressures the latter’s board to further consider the offer, which it said it would do.
“The board is now engaged, with the assistance of its advisors, in a thorough review,” the company said in a statement. “The board is committed to acting in the best interests of shareholders and will respond to Gannett as quickly as feasible.”
Now that the offer is being fully considered, Tribune is required to announce if it will accept the bid. If it rejects the buy-out, Gannett will either raise the amount or walk away from the negotiations.
Alongside USA Today, Gannett owns more than 100 newspapers in different states, including the Detroit Free Press, Arizona Republic and Des Moines Register.
“We believe Tribune shares the new Gannett’s unwavering commitment to journalistic excellence and delivering superior content on all platforms,” Gannett CEO Robert Dickey wrote in an open letter to Tribune’s board and Justin Dearborn, the company’s chief executive. “In this respect, the proposed combination of Gannett and Tribune would bring together two highly complementary organizations with a shared goal of providing trusted, premium content for the readers and communities we serve.”
Shares of Tribune ballooned more than 55 percent on Wall Street amid news of the deal. The proposed price-tag would be a 63 percent premium on Tribune’s closing price Friday.
The offer comes less than a month after Gannett completed a $280M acquisition of Journal Media Group, which owned Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Commercial Appeal of Memphis.
