Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Standard General Acquires Tegna

Merger activity remained steady with five new deals announced, four deals completed and one deal terminated. Two of the five new deals announced were potential deals in the works.

TEGNA Inc. (TGNA)

Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, TEGNA is a digital media and marketing services company. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.

We first added TEGNA as a potential deal in the works on August 16, 2019, when Apollo Global Management (APO) approached the company about a deal. TEGNA’s price after this announcement was $14.28. On January 21, 2020, another large investor in Tegna (TGNA) wanted the company to pursue a merger or sale. During March 2020 even as the nation was coming to grips with a new pandemic and the market dropped sharply, Tegna received four competing offers.

Bidding War Timeline

• On March 6, 2020, Gray Television (GTN) made an offer to acquire Tegna (TGNA) for approximately $8.5 billion in a cash plus stock deal worth $20 per share.
• Media mogul Byron Allen made a bid for the company on March 11, 2020.
• A week later, on March 17, 2020, the Najafi Companies announced the delivery of an offer to Tegna’s (TGNA) board of directors to jointly acquire the company. Gray Television withdrew its offer the same day.

Only plus or premium subscribers can access this post. Subscribe today.