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Sinclair and Tribune Part 2: The Redux


Weeters

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Wow, Boris can really swing that thing lol

 

I can see it now.....

 

STOP PICKING ON MY BUDDY......DONALD TRUMP! (which is pretty much every Bottom Line commentary there is or will ever be...)

 

While reminded of of Scott Jones' idea of bees in his mouth...this classic comes to mind....

TkDgXWo.gif

 

Sinclair is no surrender monkey....that's for sure. This merger will be pried from their "cold dead hands"....

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Which I think is a move to, with their cash resources, to get Ed Ansin to name his price and actually meet it, not just for WSVN but for WHDH/WLVI. I don't think that Fox would want to enter a WJZY-on-steroids situation in a market with 2-3 Dolphins games a year and abysmal interest in the Marlins.

 

how many Canes games (if any) would they air?

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http://www.tribunemedia.com/tribune-media-terminates-merger-agreement-with-sinclair-broadcast-group-inc-files-lawsuit-for-breach-of-contract/

 

“In light of the FCC’s unanimous decision, referring the issue of Sinclair’s conduct for a hearing before an administrative law judge, our merger cannot be completed within an acceptable timeframe, if ever,” said Peter Kern, Tribune Media’s Chief Executive Officer. “This uncertainty and delay would be detrimental to our company and our shareholders. Accordingly,
we have exercised our right to terminate the Merger Agreement, and, by way of our lawsuit, intend to hold Sinclair accountable
.”

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Here’s the internal email Peter Kern sent to his employees, according to Robert Feder:

 

Tribune Team,

 

Earlier this morning we announced the termination of our proposed merger with Sinclair and that we have filed a lawsuit against Sinclair for breach of contract—attached is the press release we issued a short time ago.

 

Given the developments of the last few weeks, and the decision by the Federal Communications Commission to refer certain issues to an administrative law judge in light of Sinclair’s conduct, it’s highly unlikely that this transaction could ever receive FCC approval and be completed, and certainly not within an acceptable timeframe. This delay and uncertainty would be detrimental to our company, to our business partners, to our employees and to our shareholders. Accordingly, our Board made the decision to terminate the merger agreement with Sinclair to enable us to refocus on our many opportunities to drive the company forward and enhance shareholder value.

 

As for the lawsuit, we are confident that Sinclair did not live up to its obligations under the merger agreement and we intend to hold them accountable. A suit like this does not get resolved overnight and it is the last thing you should be thinking about, but I want you to know that Tribune did everything it was supposed to do, and we will make sure we are treated fairly.

 

Right now, I am sure many of you are still absorbing the news and wondering what it means for our company, for our future, and most especially for each of you. I want to take a moment to answer these questions and address some of your concerns as we now re-adjust to the old normal of running our great and storied Tribune Media Company.

 

So, let’s begin there—Tribune Media remains as strong as ever, with great TV stations, important local news and sports programming, a re-energized and financially powerful cable network, and a terrific history of serving our viewers, our advertisers, and our MVPD and network partners. You need look no further than the exceptional financial results we released today for proof of that. Our consistent success is directly related to your talent, your experience, your innovation, and your willingness to give your best every day.

 

As for the future, we continue to live in complex times in the media world. New consumer habits, new entrants to the space, new competitors every day, and consolidation going on all around us. Rapid change has become the norm—it’s impossible to predict the next big thing. What I do know, though, is that we’ve got valuable assets, great people running them, and we remain one of the preeminent broadcasting companies in America.

 

No doubt the rumor mill will begin anew with speculation about who might buy us or who we might buy or whether the regulatory landscape still favors consolidation. We can’t do anything about such speculation. What we can do is rededicate ourselves to our own performance. Let’s shake off the cobwebs of deal distraction, ignore the outside noise, and continue delivering on our commitment to each other, to our customers, to our partners and to the communities we serve. If we do that, the rest will take care of itself.

 

Let’s get together for a companywide town hall meeting tomorrow at Noon ET. We’ll broadcast the meeting live to our business units, talk more about all these issues and take your questions—you can submit questions in advance of the meeting to: questions@tribunemedia.com. In the meantime, if you have any concerns, our HR team is ready to help; and Gary Weitman can handle any media inquiries you might get.

 

Thank you, again,

 

Peter

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I’m glad this whole mess is over.

Not even close. The Sinclair deal just opened the floodgates. Grab your popcorn, we're gonna see more mega-merger attempts like this in the near future. Mark my words.

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Early bird gets the worm. That email showed up in my inbox at 5:30 in the morning.

 

The budgets will tighten of course. And we'll be sold again in due time. The deal may be dead, but the uncertainty remains.

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Not even close. The Sinclair deal just opened the floodgates. Grab your popcorn, we're gonna see more mega-merger attempts like this in the near future. Mark my words.

But those M&As will be conducted by the book and with a clear want to make the FCC happy.

 

There's nothing about this deal that made it remotely acceptable, and the fact opposition was bipartisan should speak volumes about how bad this deal was.

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Early bird gets the worm. That email showed up in my inbox at 5:30 in the morning.

 

The budgets will tighten of course. And we'll be sold again in due time. The deal may be dead, but the uncertainty remains.

 

At least WDAF-TV won't be a part of Sinclair so breathe a sigh of relief.

 

Sinclair would've ruined WDAF-TV to the ground.

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Sorry to double post but you know who got saved today?

 

WPIX New York

KTLA Los Angeles

WGN Chicago

BONUSES (if any): WJW Cleveland and WDAF Kansas City

 

I am elated with happiness that were not seeing this happen. This may be the happiest day I've ever been with at TVNT knowing this merger is not going through. Sinclair is evil and we know it.

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AND they’re suing Sinclair for damages. This is going to get really good.

Tribune terminating the Sinclair deal I expected, but suing them... that elicits this (clip at 1:20):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=pmD9hAg1B3E;m=1;s=20

 

But, seriously, there might be a case here. After all, Sinclair dragged on this merger far longer than they should have, because of their greed; they wanted to acquire all 42 Tribune stations despite the ownership conflicts that would entail in markets where Sinclair already had properties, waited nine months before submitting any divestiture proposals when it could have been fairly obvious that they couldn't have kept all 42 on account of their confirmation biases that since the Trump administration billed itself as deregulation-minded that every appointee through which they needed to get the deal done would rubber-stamp it, and tanked the deal by using shell companies to acquire stations intending to take over their operations (all in markets where neither Sinclair nor an existing shell had stations already) that resulted in the DOJ and the FCC determining it as "no bueno".

 

I don't know if Tribune would have had an easier time getting an acquisition done had Nexstar not dropped out of the bidding and became the victor in the bidding war, but I have a thought that Nexstar probably would have followed the playbook it used with the Media General merger and sell most of the conflict outlets (possibly with exceptions of MyNetworkTV and CW affiliates in markets where it had a conflict) to an independent buyer(s).

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I'm not surprised about the lawsuit. Think about all the legal and filing expenses incurred while Sinclair submitted one bogus deal after another, for more than a year, just letting everyone twist in the wind.

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If Sinclair was wise, they would step back from any attempts at mergers at this point... Any company willing to merge with Sinclair at this point may as well have their heads examined... This lawsuit will be very hairy and interesting to say the least... With all the popcorn I'll be eating watching this, I hope to lose 10 pounds by the end of this...

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So does this also mean the the "pending" sale to FOX on some tribune stations, is also dead?

Those were tied to this deal as were the purchases by Standard Media. So, if either were to acquire the stations they had bought on pretense that the Sinclair-Tribune merger would be approved, they'd have to buy them from Tribune directly now.

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