Monday, December 31, 2012

CareerBuilder | Tribune Co.'s stake up to $2.3B; post-bankruptcy, speculation on possible buyers

The Tribune Co. today is finally emerging from bankruptcy court protection, with plans to sell its newspapers and TV stations -- plus "strategic assets" including its stake in online job site CareerBuilder and cable channel Food Network, worth $2.26 billion, the Chicago Tribune is now reporting.

The Tribune story doesn't give a value solely to CareerBuilder, however, citing only an analysis this year by financial adviser Lazard.

Gannett would be expected to consider buying out Tribune Co., assuming a deal on price could be reached. GCI owns a controlling stake of just over 50% in the jobs site, with McClatchy Co. as the third ownership partner.

CEO Gracia Martore has expressed interest in investing in more acquisitions, although she hasn't been specific. The company has millions in cash on hand.

GCI held $237 million in cash and cash-equivalents at the end of the third quarter, according to Corporate's 10-Q filing for the period with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That was up from $196 million in the same quarter a year before. As recently as this year's first quarter, it stood at just $157 million. 

2 comments:

  1. Maybe Gannett will buy Tribune papers too. Just to make sure no print Newspapers can survive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This past weekend, the Orlando Sentinel began using the USA Weekend magazine for its Sunday paper. The last time I saw this being done was when Gannett was purchasing the Papers in North Georgia more than 20 years ago.

    I feel that the Sentinel is about to become USA Orlando

    ReplyDelete

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