A Chicago Tribune newspaper vending machine or ‘honor box’ stands on a sidewalk in Chicago, Illinois.
Christopher Dilts | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tribune Publishing’s largest shareholder, Alden Global Capital, said on Thursday it had offered to take full control of the owner of the Chicago Tribune in a deal that values the company at $ 520.6 million.
Alden, known for its hostile takeover bids from publishers, owns a 32% stake in Tribune.
The hedge fund’s offer valued the newspaper chain at $ 14.25 a share, representing an 11.4% premium over the company’s last closing price.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the possible deal, said the hedge fund took third place on the board of the Chicago Tribune publisher in July in exchange for an agreement to extend a standstill deal that would allow Alden Could not increase interest or a hostile bid for Tribune until after June 2021.
Tribune did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The newspaper chain, owner of the New York Daily News and the Baltimore Sun, has seen a decline in sales this year as the Covid-19 pandemic gets in the way of the publishing industry.
A study published last month found that print newspapers saw their overall consumer reach decline amid the health crisis.
According to the findings of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a research center at the University of Oxford, commercial news media are the hardest hit by the pandemic, especially those based on advertising, as well as newspapers and local media. follows media trends.