Jessell | Musings About Apollo-Cox-Northwest-Nexstar
Apollo Global is cobbling together a major new station group by melding Cox, Northwest and spinoffs from the Nexstar-Tribune merger. Not much is known about the four-sided deal at this point, but it’s got everybody talking. Most surprising to me: Northwest and its retrans contracts may be the key to the whole thing.
The TV industry has an unlikely new star: Leon Black. The billionaire investor is poised to become one of the biggest players in local television thanks to a dealmaking spree. His private equity firm, Apollo Global Management, is working on a trifecta of transactions that could give it control of more than 40 stations from Atlanta to Seattle. First off, Apollo is in talks to buy a group of local television stations from Nexstar Media Group Inc. for more than $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The deal could be announced in the next week, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the discussions aren’t public.
One of the world’s largest private equity firms is moving in on the local media landscape, placing billion-dollar bets on some of the biggest local TV franchises in the U.S. Apollo Global Management’s local media spree could one day give the firm significant local TV power.
Apollo Global Management will get a majority interest in Cox Media Group’s 13 television stations. Cox Enterprises will maintain a minority stake and will join Apollo in forming a new company to operate these stations, which will be headquartered in Atlanta.
Apollo Global Management LLC is nearing a roughly $3 billion agreement to acquire Cox Enterprises Inc.’s 14 TV stations, the biggest in a series of deals the private equity firm is lining up to become a force in U.S. broadcasting, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. Apollo is also a bidder for a portfolio of local TV stations worth about $1 billion that Nexstar Media Group plans to shed following its $4.1 billion takeover of Tribune Media. And it may snap up stations of Northwest Broadcasting.
Reuters is reporting that Northwest Broadcasting’s Brian Brady is joining forces with private equity Apollo Global Management to make a bid for Tribune Media. The report also says that Nexstar is in the Tribune chase and that if it fails it will turn its sights on Cox Media’s TV group, which includes three Top 25 ABC affiliates.
Exclusives
Shares of Nexstar Media Group soared Wednesday after Reuters reported that private equity firm Apollo Global Management had approached the second largest broadcast station owner in the U.S. about a possible buyout.
Buyout firm Apollo Global Management has approached Nexstar Media Group, an operator of television stations that reach nearly 40% of U.S. households, to express interest in acquiring it, according to people familiar with the matter. The approach comes a year after Nexstar’s $2.3 billion acquisition of peer Media General turned it into one of the largest U.S. broadcasters.
The New York billionaire’s buyout shop Apollo Global Management is eyeing an acquisition of publishing empire Tronc — swooping in as negotiations to sell the company’s Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune papers have stalled.
The suit alleges that Fox schemed with private equity giant Apollo Global Management to strip the assets of American Idol producer Core Media to the detriment of lenders.
Investment firm Apollo Global Management is set to acquire the Washington-based Outerwall, owner of struggling DVD-rental kiosk chain Redbox, for $1.6 billion. Apollo, which is headquartered in New York, will acquire Outerwall’s outstanding shares of common stock for $52 per share.
21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management ‘s joint venture bringing together Endemol, Shine and Core Media has been formally completed following regulatory approval. The new joint venture will operate under the name Endemol Shine Group, with Fox and funds managed by Apollo affiliates each owning 50 percent.
Former BSkyB content executive Sophie Turner Laing will be CEO of the new group that brings together Endemol, Shine Group and Core Media.
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox and the private equity firm Apollo Global Management have entered into a preliminary agreement to create a joint venture consisting of several leading television production companies, people familiar with the matter said. Under the proposed terms, the joint venture would manage 21st Century Fox’s Shine Group as well as the Apollo-controlled Endemol and Core Media Group, which are run as separate companies. The combination would create a global television production juggernaut with shows ranging from American Idol to The Biggest Loser.
The former News Corp. president is in preliminary discussions to merge his independent entertainment company, Apollo Global Management, with two prominent reality television production firms, Endemol and Core Media Group.
Media company CKx Inc., which owns proprietary rights to American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, said Tuesday is being sold to a private equity group for about $511 million in cash.
