The Akron Beacon Journal and 11 other newspapers were left “still wondering” today after the sale of the Knight Ridder empire to McClatchy Co. for $4.5 billion.
Here’s the news from San Jose:
NEW OWNER PLANS TO SELL THE MERCURY NEWS, 11 OTHER KR PAPERS
McClatchy Co. announced today that it will acquire Knight-Ridder in a deal valued at approximately $4.5 billion, and plans to sell 12 of the San Jose newspaper company's 32 papers, including the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times.
Tony Ridder, chairman and chief executive of Knight Ridder, called the deal a good outcome for shareholders. He said he is glad the period of uncertainty that began when a dissident shareholder forced Knight Ridder to offer itself for sale is over for many of the company's employees.
``For the 12 newspapers that will be sold, the uncertainty is not over and I regret that very much,'' Ridder said.
In addition to the Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, those include the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and the Akron Beacon Journal. The Wilkes Barre Times Leader, the Aberdeen American News, the Grand Forks Herald, the Ft. Wayne News-Sentinal, the Monterey Herald, and the Duluth News and Tribune.
The deal was valued at $67.25 a share -- $40 of that in cash and the rest in McClatchy shares. That totals $4.5 billion, and the Sacramento-based company is also assuming $2 billion in Knight Ridder debt.
McClatchy chief executive Gary Pruitt called the deal ``a vote of confidence in the newspaper industry.''
Click on the headline to read about the whole sorry mess
Monday, March 13, 2006
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2 comments:
Maybe it's time that we all chipped in and sent a letter to Tony to let him know what we think about his "regrets."
In a nutshell this is where JSK made a fatal mistake in going public:
From an AP dispatch today:
Though publicly owned, McClatchy stock is divided into two tiers, keeping 93 percent of the voting power among members of the McClatchy family and removing the pressure that led Knight Ridder to put itself up for sale after its largest investors became frustrated with the company's stock performance.
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