Best offer: Gannett Co., which owns five Louisiana newspapers and more than 100 other media properties across the country, says today that it offered to buy Tribune Publishing for about $815 million, its second big expansion move since spinning off from its former parent less than a year ago. In a letter to Justin Dearborn, CEO of Tribune, which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and nine other dailies, Gannett CEO Robert Dickey reiterated today a private April 12 offer to pay $12.25 per share, a 63% premium to Tribune’s closing stock price last Friday. Gannett’s deal includes assuming $390 million of Tribune’s debt outstanding as of Dec. 31, 2015. The offer price is about 5.6 times Tribune’s estimated 2016 earnings before interest, taxes and other items. Gannett estimates about $50 million a year in “synergies” savings. Gannett owns USA Today plus 107 local news organizations. Read the full story.
For the 99%: Want to boast about having an account with Goldman Sachs but don’t have the $10 million required for the minimum deposit? Well, now mere mortals can enjoy the American Dream, too, NBC reports. Wall Street’s infamous financial firm just introduced GS Bank, an online service that includes a savings account with no minimum deposit, no transaction fees, and a 1.05% interest rate that is currently almost one full percentage point above every other big bank. The new strategy follows Goldman’s acquisition of online bank GE Capital and comes as part of the banking behemoth’s restructuring in the face of stricter federal regulations, falling profits, and calls for more diversified—and reliable—revenue sources. Read the full story.
Unexpected: Purchases of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly declined in March for a third month, reflecting the weakest pace of demand in the West since July 2014. Bloomberg reports total sales decreased 1.5% to a 511,000 annualized pace, a Commerce Department report showed today. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was for a gain to 520,000. In western states, demand slumped 23.6%. Purchases rose in two regions last month, indicating uneven demand at the start of the busiest time of the year for builders and real estate agents. While new construction has been showing limited upside, cheap borrowing costs and solid hiring will help ensure residential real estate continues to expand. “The overall picture is still pretty good,” says Tom Simons, a money-market economist at Jefferies LLC in New York. Read the full story.
