{"id":337980,"date":"2025-12-09T00:44:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/337980\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T00:44:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T00:44:07","slug":"nexstar-ceo-perry-sook-on-being-whipsawed-by-trump-public-about-pending-tegna-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/337980\/","title":{"rendered":"Nexstar CEO Perry Sook On Being “Whipsawed” By Trump & Public About Pending Tegna Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNexstar<\/a> CEO Perry Sook<\/a> said he still fully expects the local TV giant\u2019s pending deal to acquire rival Tegna<\/a> will get approved despite some surprisingly adversarial comments recently by President Trump.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe exec appeared Monday at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference for a panel focused largely on the $6.2 billion merger proposed earlier this year<\/a>. Nexstar and other broadcasters have been lobbying federal regulators to do away with the ownership cap, with that step crucial in order for the Nexstar-Tegna deal<\/a> to be approved. Currently, a single company may own stations reaching no more than 39% of U.S. households. As proposed, the Nexstar-Tegna deal would double that footprint.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump expressed concern<\/a> in one of his typically feverish social media posts that lifting the cap could help amplify left-of-center voices, a worry voiced previously by Chris Ruddy, a longtime associate. Ruddy runs conservative TV news network Newsmax. \u201cIf this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to \u2018enlarge,\u2019 I would not be happy,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social., adding that ABC and NBC are a \u201cdisaster\u201d and a \u201cvirtual arm of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the UBS conference, Sook\u2019s comments echoed a statement Nexstar put out in the wake of Trump\u2019s comments last month. \u201cI don\u2019t think these will be the only tweets you\u2019ll ever see on this transaction, the potential Netflix transaction, or, you know, any other derivative that might come from that,\u201d the exec said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to weigh in because he is very attuned to the media, and he was going to make sure that, you know, his opinion is known, not only in Washington but by the counterparties involved in the transaction. I certainly respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSook said he has cautioned the executive team at Nexstar about being \u201cwhipsawed\u201d by takes on the merger as the company goes through the two-month public comment period managed by the FCC. The period will elapse in January.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA lot of people have things to say about the transaction,\u201d which will create a local TV colossus of unprecedented scale, Sook said. \u201cAnd so, we will be whipsawed, and people may choose to try and trade on that. I certainly respect everybody\u2019s business model, but I said, we need to not pay attention to noise. We need to just keep our heads down and do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, has repeatedly expressed support for lifting the cap, which proponents say would help level the playing field between local TV and Big Tech. Opinions differ about whether the change would require Congressional action. With or without the imprimatur of Congress, the matter will likely be decided in court, though no lawsuits have yet been filed over the most recent round of challenges to the ownership rules.<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond the FCC process, which will move to the \u201cpleading\u201d phase once public comments are closed, Sook was asked about the Department of Justice. UBS analyst John Hodulik, who moderated the session with Sook and Nexstar CFO Lee Ann Gliha, expressed his view that the DOJ\u2019s antitrust division has been more of a \u201cblack box\u201d than the FCC under Carr, a constant presence on social media.<\/p>\n

\n\tSook said meetings with DOJ staff and officials are on the calendar for 2026. The discussions will be \u201cvery interactive; they\u2019ll be asking questions, we\u2019ll be asking questions.\u201d The kinds of questions posed in the meetings could lead to refinements to the merger agreement, Sook said. Asked by Hodulik about likely divestitures, Sook said it was too early to determine if they\u2019ll be required, but the company has told shareholders they would be \u201cimmaterial\u201d if they are applied to the deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs far as the Trump factor, Sook noted, there has been his criticism but also his pro-business and anti-regulation comments during both terms in office. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be contemplating this transaction if he weren\u2019t in the White House,\u201d the CEO observed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said he still fully expects the local TV giant\u2019s pending deal to acquire rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,14007,69112,49910,134037,64114,49911,92],"class_list":["post-337980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-nexstar","tag-nexstar-media-group","tag-nexstar-tegna-deal","tag-perry-sook","tag-tegna","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337980","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=337980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}