Reuters News is today reporting that American regional TV station owner Gray Television has tendered an $8.5 million offer to purchase the much larger Tegna Inc. Tegna owns KING-5 & KONG-16 here in our market. Gray, which has a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, has offered about $20 per share in cash and stock for Tegna, two of the sources said. The acquisition financing would add to Gray’s $3.8 billion debt pile, but the company has a plan to quickly pay down debt should the deal be completed, one of the sources added. There’s no indication yet whether Tegna will accept the offer. Private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. has also signaled it wishes to purchase the corporation.
