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Tribune Terminates $3.9 Billion Merger With Rival Sinclair (wsj.com)
The merger that once seemed all but inevitable has fallen apart. According to The Wall Street Journal, Tribune Media has terminated its merger agreement with rival TV station-owner Sinclair Broadcast Group (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). The company is also suing Sinclair for failing to make sufficient efforts to get their $3.9 billion deal approved by regulators. From the report: The suit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, alleges that Sinclair breached the merger agreement by engaging in "unnecessarily aggressive and protracted negotiations" with regulators over their requirement that Sinclair divest stations in certain markets to obtain approval, Tribune said in a statement. The deal structures Sinclair proposed, which Tribune said were done to allow it to maintain control over stations, created risks for the deal in violation of the merger agreement. Tribune is seeking financial damages.
The collapse of the deal and lawsuit mark a stunning turn of events for a deal that when it was announced in April of 2016 seemed certain to receive regulatory approval. "Our merger cannot be completed within an acceptable time frame, if ever, Tribune Media Chief Executive Peter Kern said in a statement. "This uncertainty and delay would be detrimental to our company and our shareholders. Accordingly, we have exercised our right to terminate the merger agreement, and, by way of our lawsuit, intend to hold Sinclair accountable." The merger hit the rocks last month when FCC commissioners voted to send the proposed sale to a judge. "FCC chairman Ajit Pai raised 'serious concerns' about Sinclair's selloff of 21 stations it had proposed in order to remain under station ownership limits post-merger," Engadget reported last month. "Had Sinclair declined to sell off some stations, its 173 broadcast stations in 81 markets, combined with Tribune's 42 stations in 33 markets would reach 72 percent of U.S. TV households."
The collapse of the deal and lawsuit mark a stunning turn of events for a deal that when it was announced in April of 2016 seemed certain to receive regulatory approval. "Our merger cannot be completed within an acceptable time frame, if ever, Tribune Media Chief Executive Peter Kern said in a statement. "This uncertainty and delay would be detrimental to our company and our shareholders. Accordingly, we have exercised our right to terminate the merger agreement, and, by way of our lawsuit, intend to hold Sinclair accountable." The merger hit the rocks last month when FCC commissioners voted to send the proposed sale to a judge. "FCC chairman Ajit Pai raised 'serious concerns' about Sinclair's selloff of 21 stations it had proposed in order to remain under station ownership limits post-merger," Engadget reported last month. "Had Sinclair declined to sell off some stations, its 173 broadcast stations in 81 markets, combined with Tribune's 42 stations in 33 markets would reach 72 percent of U.S. TV households."
If you haven't, you should read the text of the lawsuit that Tribune filed against Sinclair. I can only wonder what they were thinking.
http://www.tribunemedia.com/wp...
No doubt they had Hillary pre-bribed. Another unexpected win from 2016!
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
We don't need to expand the Sinclair propaganda network to 72 percent of the public and we don't need a bigger broadcast version of Fox News, so I'm fine with this deal falling apart.
No doubt Horny Wuss is making dumb shit up again from whole asscloth! You lying faggot you love treason more than you love blowing Vladimir, admit it.
Oh please, Sinclair is so rabidly anti-Democrat that they're probably going to try to blame Obama, Carter and Garfield for this.
Still looking for a non corrupt explanation for the sudden drop in bribeflow into the Clinton global fund after she lost.
Anybody?
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Sinclair is known to lean conservative. If a Dem decided to play politics with the decision, they would have killed it right out of the gate.
After what Sinclair has done with it's other purchases I'm happy to see one fall through. It's pretty clear that the owners of Sinclair use their media empire to push a specific ideology; one I think it's pretty obvious I don't agree with. They seem to be buying up virtually all media. Having one group own virtually all major media outlets can't possibly be a good thing for Democracy.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
You're saying it was the flaming liberal Tribune side that bribed the Clintons...certainly possible, but I'd still guess 'both'.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I wonder what was his concern about. Maybe he was concerned the deal wasn't considering his slice of the pie.
Will I have to watch the TWO local Sinclair stations (never mind the .2 versions of those), or Fox News? I want MORE! MORE! MORE TRUMP TV!
The real question is : How would HRC's fundraisers ever compare to Trump's proven and admitted collusion with Putin to affect the election? Why the perjury if "it's not a crime and didn't happen"? You're a faggot defending treason.
Putin's cock will see you now, assume the position traitor. When Trump hangs for treason we'll find out all about Hillary's fundraisers, but traitors hang first. Them's the rules, sorry nazi snowflake.
And the Tribune is flaming left...the money is still green.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
That's just an admission I'm right.
Still no non corrupt explanation even offered.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Whenever Libtards have no answer, out comes their inner Nazi for some deflection.
They were just super busy covering up seth rich, gay frogs, pizzagate, bolwing green and carrying out jade helm.
By the way, how did the 16 republican investigation into hillary go? I'm sure she's going to prison any day now.
Dont worry, Qanon will save you from the secret dems pedo ring. /s
And the Tribune is flaming left...
What nonsense. You'd have to be further to the right than the John Birch Society and the Federalist Society to think the Tribune is "flaming left."
Sinclair is a propaganda tool worse than CNN. Full of fake news and lies ordered from the top down.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
You're saying it was the flaming liberal Tribune side that bribed the Clintons...certainly possible, but I'd still guess 'both'.
Sure man, now how's that QAnon going for you? Getting enough crazy pills?
I told Sinclair to stop airing so much wrinkly old cleavage...
As a lifelong Chicagoan, I'm glad that the venerable WGN-TV and WGN AM 720 didn't fall to Sinclair. These stations are an invaluable source of independent, local news reporting.
Editorial at the Sun-Times says it well.
That's just an admission I'm right.
You're admitting you're a right-wing stooge? Why? We already knew that without your confession.
Before Clinton, owners were prohibited from owning more than 3 areas. As such, the media had a LOT of competition. It meant that 1 owner could not really dominate any area, except for small rural areas. Then Clinton dropped that regulation which IIFC, had gone all the way back to Great Depression. After that, our media has not only gone downhill, but become uncompetitive and unable to deal with the internet.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
For those of you far righties that are speaking out against Sinclair and implying that they are liberals:
Sinclair's stations have been known for featuring news content and programming that promote conservative political positions, and have been involved in various controversies surrounding politically-motivated programming decisions,[170][3] such as news coverage and specials during the lead-ups to elections that were in support of the Republican Party.[171][172][170] A study by Emory University political scientists Gregory J. Martin and Josh McCrain found that "stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market."[173]
Like your favorite Faux News, Breitbart and Daily Stormer, Sinclair is pretty far right.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
what corrupt? she wasn't in government service so the money is better spent elsewhere. just because it helped people get attention doesn't mean it is corrupt.
grown up people can put morals over dollars even if that means they make more dollars sometimes. mind boggling really, eh?
so smug
A bunch of old men with open shirts turns you on?
The answer is that Don Junior is literally guilty of perjury before Congress and the FBI both, and he'll probably go to prison. Followed by his obese, insane, retarded, orange sleazy manwhore of a father, Drumpftard the Terrible, Ivan.
captcha : disdain
It's 50% propaganda and 50% news repeating the propaganda's effect, fair and balanced!
I wonder if they ever look back and see how they got here. When Obama was POTUS, you could pretty much flip between Russia Today and Fox News and not be sure which station you were on. Same fake smiles, same silly petty misleading crap and spouting hatred of Obama, even if it undermined USA position.
And now, here they are, undermining the FBI, the military, CIA, even the GOP trying to prop up Trump. "Collusion isn't a crime".... really Fox? Colluding with Russia to seize control of the USA, isn't a crime? Hannity is involved in this, up to his neck with Cohen, and you don't even put him on leave? And you're there every night spouting MEMEs taking from Russian trolls undermining America and pretending to be patriotic?
You're the one making the assertion, not the AC. You're also the one changing the subject, trying to make it about Clinton being "corrupt" when Clinton has nothing to do with this case.
Lean? Sinclair is to the conservatives what Pravda was to the USSR. A propaganda mouthpiece, and they readily admit it.
My facts are on the record. Nobody denies the CGF's bribe flow went to virtually zero, right when the bitch has time for her charity work.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
^^ Open corruption being excused, because vagina.
Keep it up. That's how we get more Trump.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'