Gannett Co Inc (NYSE:GCI) is no longer bidding to acquire Chicago Tribune publisher tronc Inc (NASDAQ:TRNC).
Gannett Co Inc said that it was indeed in discussions with tronc Inc to acquire it. However, the newspaper publishing company has now decided that it won’t be moving forward with plans to acquire TRNC.
“While we have great respect for the Tronc employees and properties, and while we believed that the acquisition would have provided an attractive opportunity to expand the USA TODAY NETWORK quickly, in the end the terms were not acceptable,” Robert Dickey, CEO of Gannett Co Inc, told USA Today.
Dickey went on to say that Gannett Co Inc is still interested in expanding its network for USA Today. He claims the problem is that he is unwilling to make acquisitions that aren’t “accretive to shareholders.” He also said he will only make deals that “make sense” for the company.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal between Gannett Co Inc and tronc Inc started to fall apart when the former couldn’t secure funding for the acquisition. Insider sources claim the two had agreed upon a price of $18.75 per share in cash for TRNC. This would’ve been a 149% over the price for TRNC stock prior to the offer.
Gannett Co Inc and tronc Inc’s effort to merge come during a time when advertising revenue is down in newspapers. GCI holds 12% of the daily newspaper market and TRNC holds 5% of that market.
GCI stock was down 1% and TRNC stock was down 15% as of Noon Tuesday.
