On April 22, Tribune Publishing’s Board sent a letter to Gannett indicating it was finalizing engagements with Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Lazard as financial advisors and Kirkland & Ellis LLP as legal advisor.
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But Gannett said that Tribune has refused to start “constructive discussions” about a deal since it first offered to buy its rival earlier this month.
“Continuing to refuse to engage in a dialog with us will only serve to delay the ability of your stockholders to receive the value represented by our all-cash offer”, Dickey said. Tribune, which owns both the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, told investors that it is still reviewing the proposal from Gannett, which owns USA Today.
Gannett wants to make this move because-despite adding debt and more brands-it’ll save the company roughly $50 million in “synergies” savings.
The offer price is about 5.6 times Tribune’s estimated 2016 earnings before interest, taxes and other items (EBITDA).
Last year Gannett bought out Jeff Montgomery, Maureen Milford, Cris Barrish and other experienced reporters at DelawareOnline and the Wilmington News Journal. “We did not seek or encourage this proposal and the Board has not been trying to sell the Company”.
Gannett is the publisher of USA Today. “We’re confident that, with cooperation between the companies, we can complete due diligence in a very timely fashion and execute an agreement”, Dickey said. Tribune “fills a number of geographical gaps for us”, Dickey says. “We think bringing their publications to the USA TODAY NETWORK strengthens the overall NETWORK”.
Last year, Gannett bought Journal Media Group, whose holdings included the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, for about $280 million in cash.
Tribune Publishing reported a loss of $2.8 million in 2015 as revenue slipped 2.1 percent to $1.67 billion. In February, Tribune named Justin Dearborn as its new CEO, replacing Jack Griffin less than two years after he joined the business.
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Tribune Publishing was clearly sideswiped. That is “considerably below industry standards”, he said. And you can’t do that without having proper resources. We will always be efficient at our job. “We are focused on delivering relevant and impactful journalism that reaches the largest global audience, using innovative technology and leveraging that content to drive transactions for our partners using sophisticated tools and analytics”.
