{"id":311498,"date":"2025-11-24T21:08:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T21:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311498\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T21:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T21:08:14","slug":"sinclair-offers-to-buy-scripps-in-unsolicited-takeover-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/311498\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinclair Offers to Buy Scripps in Unsolicited Takeover Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSinclair<\/a>, the second-biggest U.S. TV station group owner, has proposed to acquire smaller rival E.W. Scripps Co.<\/a> in its entirety, offering $7 per share for stock in Scripps that it does not already own.<\/p>\n

\n\tSinclair disclosed the takeover bid Monday in an SEC filing and also said it has acquired a 9.9% stake in Scripps. Last week, Sinclair revealed it had bought up 8.2% of Scripps\u2019 common shares<\/a> and was in acquisition talks with the company.<\/p>\n

\n\tSinclair operates and\/or provides services to 185 TV stations in 85 markets, while Scripps has more than 60 stations in 40-plus markets. According to Sinclair, upon closing of the Scripps acquisition, Scripps shareholders would own approximately 12.7% of the combined entity.<\/p>\n

\n\tSinclair\u2019s bid for Scripps comes as Nexstar Media Group, the biggest U.S. television station ownership group with 201 stations, is seeking to close its $6.2 billion deal to buy Tegna, which has 64 stations. Last week, Nexstar filed applications requesting a waiver by the FCC of the agency\u2019s 39% ownership cap<\/a> on TV station owners\u2019 reach across U.S. households.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the SEC filing, Sinclair commented on the FCC\u2019s current 39% ownership limit: \u201cWe are confident that under existing rules, including the national cap, the transaction can be completed in a timely manner with limited select divestitures.\u201d Sinclair has requested a response from Scripps to the proposal by Dec. 5, 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe combined company would continue to maintain \u201cmeaningful operations\u201d in both Cincinnati (where Scripps is based), and Hunt Valley, Maryland (where Sinclair\u2019s headquarters is located), Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley wrote in a letter to Scripps\u2019 board of directors. \u201cSinclair is supportive of retaining the E.W. Scripps corporate name or selecting a new corporate name,\u201d Ripley said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, Scripps on Monday acknowledged receiving the takeover offer. \u201cConsistent with its fiduciary duties and in consultation with its legal and financial advisors, the company\u2019s board of directors will carefully review and evaluate any proposals, including the unsolicited Sinclair proposal, to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the company and all of its shareholders as well as its employees and the many communities and audiences it serves across the United States,\u201d Scripps said. \u201cThe company does not intend to comment further on Sinclair\u2019s unsolicited proposal until the board has completed its review.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Sinclair\u2019s proposal, Scripps shareholders would receive $7.00 per share, consisting of $2.72 in cash and $4.28 in combined company common stock. The $7-per-share price represents a 200% premium to Scripps\u2019 30-day volume-weighted average price as of Nov. 6, the last trading day prior to \u201csignificant buying activity\u201d from Sinclair.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe combined Sinclair-Scripps company would have a market capitalization of $2.9 billion, based on a 7:1 ratio of enterprise value to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), according to Sinclair, which it said is \u201cin line with current trading levels for leading broadcast groups.\u201d Sinclair currently estimates the unified company would have about $325 million in cost synergies. <\/p>\n

\n\tUnder the terms of the Sinclair proposal, Scripps shareholders may elect to receive all-cash or all-stock consideration for each of the shares of Scripps, subject to proration to the maximum cash and equity amounts detailed in the offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinclair, the second-biggest U.S. TV station group owner, has proposed to acquire smaller rival E.W. Scripps Co. in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,160815,54294],"class_list":["post-311498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-e-w-scripps-co","tag-sinclair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}