The worst-kept secret in months is officially out in the open … Knight Ridder’s board has agreed to sell to The McClatchy Company for cash and stock worth about $4.5 billion. Each KR share would be traded for $40 cash and a fraction of McClatchy stock, pending shareholder and federal approval. The new McClatchy would:
– stay in KR’s position as second-largest newspaper company with 32 dailies and about 50 non-dailies following the sale of 12 KR papers; the combined circulation would be about 3.2 million.
– operate in 30 markets described by McClatchy as “premium growth markets.”
– sell the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News; San Jose Mercury News; Akron Beacon Journal (OH); Wilkes Barre Times Leader; Aberdeen American News; Grand Forks Herald; Ft. Wayne News- Sentinel; Contra Costa Times; Monterey Herald; and Duluth News Tribune because theye are in areas not considered growth msrkets. The St. Paul Pioneer Press will be sold to avoid anti-trust issues with McClatchy’s Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
– add two KR directors to its board.
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