Los Angeles Times owner Tribune Publishing Co, Monday rejected a second takeover bid from USA Today owner Gannett but said it is open to further talks.
Gannett Co. last week raised its per-share bid for the owner of The Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other newspapers to $15, up from $12.25. Gannett put the total value of the revised offer at about $864 million, which includes about $385 million in debt, The Times reported.
While rejecting the offer, Tribune Publishing, in a statement today, invited Gannett to enter into a nondisclosure agreement so that the companies could talk about whether a deal could be reached.
Tribune announced earlier that it will be getting a $70.5-million investment from Nant Capital in exchange for 4.7 million shares, making Nant Tribune’s second-biggest institutional shareholder, with a 12.9 percent stake.
Nant’s founder, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a 63-year-old Los Angeles billionaire and an adjunct professor of surgery at UCLA, will become vice chairman of the board.
—City News Service