Friday, March 29, 2024

Byron Allen Makes $8.5-billion Bid for Tegna Station Group + ‘The Root’s’ Jason Johnson Steps Down After ‘Salem Witch Hunt’

*Byron Allen has reportedly made an all-cash bid for Tegna, a company that boasts a massive collection of 62 Big Four network affiliates in 51 markets — most of them in the top 50.

Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group is said to be one of three potential buyers eyeing the Tysons, Va.-based broadcaster, Jill Goldsmith reported for Deadline.

“Allen’s Allen Media Group offered $20 a share, or about $8.5 billion, the source said. It is going up against Gray Television, which last week made [an] offer, also for $20 a share but in a combination of cash and stock. . . .”

Goldsmith also wrote, “Tegna is the name given to Gannett’s broadcast and digital business when it was spun off from the publishing assets. It owns 52 stations in 61 markets, including a preponderance of big-four network affiliates in many of the largest. It covers 39% of the country. . . .

“Allen Media currently owns 15 television stations in 11 markets. It acquired most of them last month from USA TV for $305 million and said then that it planned to invest some $10 billion to acquire ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox television stations over the next three years to become of the largest broadcast television groups in America.

“The company owns a handful of cable networks, including the Weather Channel, digital news site The Grio, and film and television production under Entertainment Studios. . . .”

The bid would compete with previous offers from New York-based Apollo Global Management and Atlanta-based Gray Television, both have offered $20 a share in cash and stock, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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In related news, after five years with The Root, political editor Jason Johnson has left the website amid backlash over comments he made on “The Karen Hunter Show” on Sirius XM about “racist white liberals”  and “the island of misfit black girls” who support Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

 Hunter said Johnson’s remarks have been taken out of context, as she found him to be quite clever.

“I see how the Salem Witch Hunt happened and it’s dangerous,” Hunter said on her Feb. 25 show (see video below). 

Danielle Belton, editor-in-chief of The Root, was also on Hunter’s program and said Johnson was “talking about one black woman, maybe two. So the notion that this man is a misogynist — y’all were doing too much,” she noted of his critics on Twitter. 

 

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