Everyone is waiting for Monday

Everybody’s waiting for Monday. Pete Carey and Chris O’Brien wrote today under a San Jose Mecury News headline which said:

Knight Ridder's fate may be sealed Sunday
BOARD'S DECISION ON SALE COULD BE ANNOUNCED MONDAY

Knight Ridder's board is meeting Sunday in New York to discuss bids from McClatchy, the Sacramento-based owner of the Sacramento Bee and 11 other dailies; a consortium of private equity companies; and possibly MediaNews, the Denver company that owns 40 daily newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune.

Several sources said an announcement may be made early Monday morning in New York. McClatchy reportedly bid above $65 a share, or more than $4.7 billion, for Knight Ridder.

Buried half way down in the story is this graph:

“Gannett told all employees to be at their computers Monday morning for a Webcast by President and Chief Executive Craig Dubow, but there was no indication of what it would be about.”

MediaNews, McClatchy and the private equity companies had no comment, and neither did Knight Ridder spokesman Polk Laffoon. Nor the guy who started it all, Bruce Sherman of Private Capital Investmetn

MediaNews had been trying to woo the nation's largest newspaper company, Gannett, into a joint bid, according to sources.

McClatchy might have more newspapers than it wants. If so, MediaNews and possibly Gannett might be interested in buying some of those papers. The Newspaper Guild has secured California investor Ron Burkle's Yucaipa group to attempt to buy up to nine union-represented Knight Ridder newspapers from whoever buys the company.

Knight Ridder has said that a sale is only one option. But a number of sources close to the process said the company would be compelled to sell at $65 or more. On Friday, Knight Ridder's stock closed at exactly $65, up from Thursday's close of $62.66.

Click on the headline to read all about it.