Trio Weighs KR Bid: Three private equity firms are considering a joint bid for Knight Ridder, according to the Walll Street Journal. The Blackstone Group, Providence Equity and KKR have formed an alliance that is still in the early stages. The $4 billion market cap remains a pretty big hurdle.
– K-R Solicits Pre-Bids: KR’s own Mercury News reports that the company is soliciting preliminary bids to see who might be interested. That doesn’t mean a sale is certain. Meanwhile, Douglas Arthur, an analyst from Morgan Stanley (the second firm hired by KR to evaluate its options), says the company can save $45 million by shuttering the Philadelphia Daily News and that an acquisition would be more appealing if hundreds more jobs are slashed and costs reduced by $150 million to $350 million. Arthur predicts KR’s one-third share of CareerBuilder.com could be worth $2 billion in five years, and “may be the single most valuable asset of the company.”
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