ATLANTA—Gray Television Inc. has made an offer to acquire Tegna Inc. for a price tag of $8.5 billion, according to a report from Reuters. The deal would include debt, per the report.
Gray is a U.S. regional TV station operator, present in 93 markets and covering about 24% of U.S. TV households. If the acquisition of Tegna were to take place, it would expand Gray’s footprint in several TV markets. Tegna runs 62 TV stations in 51 U.S. markets, reaching about 39% of TV households.
Reuters says that Gray, which has a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, has offered about $20 per share in cash and stock for Tegna.
Apollo Global Management Inc. made a couple of attempts in 2019 to acquire Tegna, which was eventually confirmed by Tegna. Reuters cites anonymous sources that Tegna will explore all options before agreeing to any deal, but no official comment was provided by Tegna, Gray or Apollo.
Gray and Tegna have recently worked together, announcing a dela for Gray to acquire a minority stake in Premion, Tegna’s over-the-top advertising platform for advertisers.
