A Chicago Tribune newspaper or “honor box” vending machine sits on a sidewalk in Chicago, Illinois.
Christopher Dilts | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Tribune Publishing’s largest shareholder, Alden Global Capital, said on Thursday that it had offered to take full control of the Chicago Tribune owner in a deal that values the company at $ 520.6 million.
Alden, known for its hostile takeover bids from publishers, has a 32% stake in Tribune.
The hedge fund’s offer valued the newspaper network at $ 14.25 per share, representing a premium of 11.4% over the last closing price of the company’s shares.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the potential deal, said the hedge fund won a third seat on the Chicago Tribune publisher’s board in July in exchange for an agreement to extend a standstill agreement preventing Alden from increasing its stake or making a hostile offer for Tribune until after June 2021.
Tribune did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The newspaper chain, which owns the New York Daily News and the Baltimore Sun, saw a decline in revenue this year, with the Covid-19 pandemic hammering the publishing industry.
A study published last month found that print newspapers saw a decline in their overall reach to consumers in the midst of the health crisis.
Commercial news media is hardest hit by the pandemic, especially those based on advertising, as well as newspapers and local media, according to the findings of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a research center at the University of Oxford that tracks the media trends.