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Apollo, Standard General make $8 billion bid for Tegna

Ccook55 said:
In Jacksonville, the issue with Tegna owning both the NBC (WTLV) and ABC (WJXX) is who is top rated and who isn't. The duopoly would never have flown if the two stations' ratings among the top four. As for Cox, they only operate WJAX (CBS) as where they outright own WFOX (Fox). Not sure about such precedent nor what will happen if and when the merger takes place.
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My bet is WTLV 12 will be sold to Nexstar & the LMA to WJXX will be sold to Scripps (Who will likelt offer to buy the station outright sice they already own fellow ABC affiliate WFTS 28 in nearby Tampa Bay) while Cox will keep the WFOX / WJAX duo

Either that or Scripps will buy WTLV & Nexstar will buy the LMA to WJXX

Either deal would work
 
JeeperOne said:
My bet is WTLV 12 will be sold to Nexstar & the LMA to WJXX will be sold to Scripps (Who will likelt offer to buy the station outright sice they already own fellow ABC affiliate WFTS 28 in nearby Tampa Bay) while Cox will keep the WFOX / WJAX duo

Either that or Scripps will buy WTLV & Nexstar will buy the LMA to WJXX

Either deal would work
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Also, Scripps has WTXL in Tallahassee, Florida's State Capital.
 

Rainbow PUSH Coalition founder Rev. Jesse Jackson has told the Federal Communications Commission it should approve the merger of Standard General and Tegna.


Tegna, which owns 64 TV stations in 51 U.S. markets, agreed to be acquired by Standard General in February for $8.6 billion including debt. McLean, Virginia-based Tegna also owns multicast networks True Crime Network, Twist and Quest, as well as advanced-advertising company Premion.

In a letter to the FCC Monday (December 12), Jackson said that after meeting with Standard General founding partner Soo Kim, who is Asian-American, and upon “careful and scrupulous review of his record on diversity and inclusion,” he and his organization “wholeheartedly support the purchase of Tegna.”
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bpatrick said:
but Scripps has practically no presence in the Southeast. It has stations in Virginia (WTKR and WTVR) and Florida (WFTS), but none in the Carolinas and Georgia, and Atlanta and Charlotte are two markets I'd want to get into. (Yes, I know they are in Nashville but I consider that to be South Central and not Southeast.)
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They also have WPTV in Donald Trump's new backyard of West Palm Beach too
 
Standard General tells the FCC there will be no layoffs of news staffs for a minimum of two years following the closing of the Tegna deal. More about it here.
 
The FCC's review of the merger will continue to at least January 20, at which point it will start vetting comments. It will be early February before a final decision is made. Story here.
 
Standard General and Comcast have struck a deal saying no retransmission fees of Tegna stations will go up. Story here.
 
Tegna stocks are on the rise, indicating the DOJ will clear the deal. February is the finish line, so Allen Media's pleas may be for naught.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
That does not sound believable given how business conditions will change in the next two years.
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They could expand the amount of time devoted to local news, and spread their news staffs out to work on those new newscasts. Yes, there might be fewer people working on one particular newscast, but maybe by spreading out staffs, there won't be layoffs.

Also, the 2024 Presidential campaign (plus state and local elections) will bring an unprecedented gusher of money to local TV stations, possibly as early as September of this year (especially for stations in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Boston, whose coverage areas include much of New Hampshire, given that Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina will likely be the first three states voting in the primary season). Should President Biden decide against running for a second term, there would be wide open races in both major parties which would mean even more $$$ from candidates and outside groups.

Especially in battleground states, I can even see the possibility of non-political advertisers being shut out or all but shut out from being able to advertise on TV in the days prior to Presidential primaries and the last two to eight weeks prior to the general election in November, 2024.

For this reason, I could even see automakers delay introductions of their 2025 models in showrooms until after Election Day as they may not be able to buy TV commercial time at all in some parts of the country between September 1st and Election Day due to all those nasty political attack ads.
 
Word is now from this source that the deal may not be finalized before the February 22 deadline due to Tegna stocks dropping 3% in value. Tegna could either walk away from the deal on the 22nd or extend the process to May.
 
Ccook55 said:
Word is now from this source that the deal may not be finalized before the February 22 deadline due to Tegna stocks dropping 3% in value. Tegna could either walk away from the deal on the 22nd or extend the process to May.
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The deal has been deader than a doornail for months. Only now is it finally starting to sink in with investors.

Good.
 
Standard General says here that all that remains is for the FCC to approve the merger as the DOJ mounted no challenge. The deal would close in either March or April.

Tegna stocks rose after the termination date for the merger was extended to May 22.
 
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Ccook55 said:
Standard General says here that all that remains is for the FCC to approve the merger as the DOJ mounted no challenge. The deal would close in either March or April.

Tegna stocks rose after the termination date for the merger was extended to May 22.
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With a 2–2 deadlocked FCC that’s already sitting on their hands with no indication of the fifth commissioner being confirmed? Good luck, Soo.

The extension is no surprise, Soo didn’t want to have to pay Tegna $50,000 in fines per day. But the FCC only has to continue to sit on it and they’re doing that and will continue to do that. Soo is desperate and has actively been trying to spin everything in his favor even when reality tells a different story.

And even if his make-believe hope of the deal actually being approved comes true, it’ll be Apollo Global Management that’s 100% controlling everything, slashing budgets, firing people en masse, and priming the stations for resale at maximum profit. Soo will be nothing more than a hapless puppet.

Of course people here and on other boards hate Tegna because They Are Different, so they don’t care about the train wreck that will happen when Apollo runs these stations into the ground and people continue to gravitate towards digital.
 
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