21 Sep Byron Allen, Apollo Global In New Round Of Bids For Broadcaster Tegna

By Jill Goldsmith

Broadcaster TEGNA confirmed Tuesday that it’s received what would be a new round of acquisition proposals. It didn’t say from whom but Byron Allen’s group is said to be bidding, along with Apollo Global Management and Standard General with an $8 billion offer

Tegna, which was spun off from newspaper giant Gannett in 2015, had a raft of offers last spring that it rebuffed. This time around it is accepting bids for the company, which operates 64 television and two radio stations in 54 U.S. markets.

Byron Allen, who has been snapping up broadcast stations and also went after Tegna previously, made the offer with alternative investment firm Ares Management.

“Consistent with its fiduciary duty to TEGNA shareholders, the Board will carefully review and evaluate these proposal,” TENGA said today.

There’s been rapid consolidation in the station business. Gray Television early this year acquired Quincy Media assets and in May agreed to buy more stations from Meredith — with Allen Media Group (AMG) acquiring seven of them to satisfy regulatory requirements.

In July, Allen acquired another station from Gray and said then he had spent over a billion dollars in broadcast acquisitions as AMG seeks to rival giant Nexstar as the nations biggest player in the space. After the close of that Gray transaction, Allen will have 24 local TV stations in 20 markets, as well as 12 networks, including the Weather Channel and streaming service Local Now.