Today it was reported that the Department of Justice is close to approving the Sinclair and Tribune merger. The deal has faced strong scrutiny by Congress, the FCC, and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Now Sinclair has proposed new terms in an effort to satisfy the government agencies that are overseeing the deal. According to the new deal, Sinclair will sell off a dozen local broadcast networks to minority owners.
Update: The DOJ has officially appealed the AT&T Time Warner Merger
Sinclair has also reportedly offered to sell an additional 10 FOX affiliates back to FOX in an effort to close this deal and get Department of Justice approval.
With this $3.9 billion deal Sinclair will buy Tribune Media, adding more than 40 stations including KTLA in Los Angeles, WPIX in New York and WGN-TV in Chicago. (Tribune also has stakes in the Food Network and job-search website CareerBuilder.)
Sinclair already has 173 stations around the country, including KENV in Salt Lake City, KOMO in Seattle and WKRC in Cincinnati. The Tribune deal, plus other pending acquisitions, will give Sinclair a total of 233 TV stations. But the Hunt Valley, Maryland-based company said it may sell some stations to comply with Federal Communications Commission rules.
Sinclair said it will pay about $43.50 in cash and stock for each share of Tribune, an 8 percent premium from Tribune’s closing price of $40.29 on Friday. Shares of Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. rose 95 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $37.90 in morning trading Monday. Tribune Media Co. shares rose $2.56, or 6.4 percent, to $42.85.
The deal was first announced back in May of 2017 but faced a long uphill fight. Getting DOJ approval is only the first step in closing the sale.
Source: MultiChannel News
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