- Media tycoon Byron Allen has reportedly bid $8.5 billion for Tegna. These are the details.
Byron Allen, a media mogul who started his career as a standup comedian, reportedly put in a bid to buy TV station company for $8.5 billion including debt according to sources with The LA Times.
Allen’s media company Allen Media Group had offered $20 per share for Tegna — which is one of the largest TV station companies in the US. Tegna has 62 TV stations across the countries, including the metro areas of Seattle, Phoenix, and San Diego. Tegna generated $2.3 billion in revenue last year.
The offer Allen put together is going to be financed with a combination of equity and debt. And the bid is competing with previous offers for the broadcasting company from Apollo Global Management and Gray Television.
Gray Television recently offered $20 per share in cash and stock for the deal. And Apollo matched Gray’s offer with all-cash.
If Allen is successful for his bid, it would significantly grow his empire. Allen launched Entertainment Studios in 1993. Entertainment Studios is known for selling weekly celebrity interviews to TV stations.
Prior to launching the media company, Allen appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” when he was 18. And Detroit-born Allen also joined the TV show “Real People.”
Allen’s media company runs TV channels like Pets.TV and Cars.TV. And the media company also serves as a film distribution service representing movies like “47 Meters Down.” One of Allen’s biggest deals was in 2018 when Allen acquired the Weather Channel cable network for $300 million.
Tegna was formed when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies. Tegna included the more profitable broadcast TV and digital media divisions of Gannett. And Gannett’s publishing businesses launched into a new company that kept the Gannett name.
