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. (NYSE: 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 (NYSE: 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 (NYSE: 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 (NYSE: GTN) made an offer to acquire Tegna (NYSE: 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.
The following day on March 30, 2020, shares of Tegna (NYSE: TGNA) fell the most since November 2008, Apollo Global Management ended its pursuit of the broadcaster, the second suitor to withdraw an offer during the ongoing turmoil in global markets. TGNA’s closing price on March 30 was $10.31.
On September 21, 2021, Tegna once again received takeover interest from media mogul Byron Allen and Apollo Global Management. TGNA’s price after this announcement was $21.52.
On November 5, 2021, Byron Allen raised $10 billion in preferred equity and debt for his bid for Tegna, hoping to prevail over a rival offer from investment firms Apollo Global Management and Standard General.
On February 4, 2022, Tegna announced that it was in advanced discussions with one of its largest shareholders, Standard General, about a potential buyout at about $24 a share.
On February 21, 2022, Bloomberg reported that Standard General and Apollo Global Management were nearing a deal to acquire Tegna. TGNA’s price before this announcement was $20.95.
The deal was confirmed the next day on February 24, 2022, with Tegna agreeing to be acquired by an affiliate of Standard General for $24.00 per share in cash. The transaction has an enterprise value of approximately $8.6 billion, representing a premium of approximately 39% to TEGNA’s unaffected closing share price on September 14, 2021, the last full trading day prior to media speculation about a potential sale of TEGNA. TEGNA shareholders could also receive additional cash consideration in the form of an unusual “ticking fee”. The details of the “ticking fee” are given in the New Deals section below.
This was one of the “Deals In The Works” that appeared to have a high probability of closing given the level of interest from multiple parties, the specificity of the details that leaked and the fact that the company also confirmed that it was in advanced discussions.
You can find all the active deals listed below in our Merger Arbitrage Tool (MAT) that automatically updates itself during market hours.
There were two new deals announced in the Deals in the Works section last week.
If you found this article informative and would like to receive it by email every Monday morning before the market opens, click here to subscribe for free.
SPAC Arbitrage
There were three new SPAC IPOs filed and two new SPAC combinations announced last week. You can find the new SPAC IPO announcements in our SPACs tool here.
Nukkleus (OTC: NUKK) announced the signing of a merger agreement for a proposed business combination with Brilliant Acquisition (NASDAQ: ...
Benzinga
