As it promised the FCC it would, NBCU found a minority to buy the Los Angeles Spanish-language independent, the Meruelo Group, headed by Alex Meruelo. Bert Ellis and Spanish Broadcasting System were among the runners-up in the bidding.
DMA 2
Sources: NBCU Selling KWHY For $43 Million
Making good on its promise to the FCC to find a minority buyer for KWHY Los Angeles, NBCU today said that it has agreed to sell the Spanish-language independent to the Hispanic-owned Meruelo Group.
The deal is expected to close by mid-year. Terms were not disclosed, but souces close to the deal say the price was more than $43 million.
Until the closing, KWHY has been placed in the hands of the Bahia Honda divestiture trust headed by Jose Cancela.
According to the sources, runners-up in the bidding included publicly traded Spanish Broadcasting System and a group backed by longtime broadcaster Bert Ellis and his partners.
Ellis, president of the Titan Broadcast Management TV station group, confirmed that he was in on the hunt. “Had we won, we would have operated the station out of KDOC.” KDOC is Ellis’ English-language independent in Los Angeles.
In a prepared statement, Meruelo Group CEO Alex Meruelo said his company was honored that KWHY would be the “only Latino-owned station in Los Angeles.”
BRAND CONNECTIONS
In fact, there are at least four others: KBEH, owned by Robert Behar (Hero Broadcasting); KVMD and KXLA, owned by Ronald Ulloa; and KJLA, owned by Walter Ulloa.
NBCU acquired KWHY along with KVEA as part of its $2.7 billion purchase of Telemundo in 2001. Since then, NBCU has been operating KWHY under a waiver of the FCC’s local ownership rules, which limit each broadcaster to just two stations in a market. NBCU also owns KNBC Los Angeles.
To come into compliance with the rules and win the favor of the FCC commissioners as they considered NBCU’s takeover by Comcast, NBCU promised to spin off KWHY to a minority.
The FCC last week approved the takeover, in which Comcast is acquiring a 51% stake in NBCU from General Electric. That deal is expected to close by the end of this month.
The Los Angeles-based Meruelo Group has interests in banking, financial services, restaurants, food services, construction, engineering and real estate. It has no other broadcast interests. It’s best known in Los Angeles for its La Pizza Loca restaurant chain.
Moelis & Co. acted as the financial adviser and Hogan Lovells US LLP acted as legal adviser to NBCU in the transaction.
Comments (1)
Matt Swope says:
January 27, 2011 at 6:35 am
If the FCC were police in Arizona, they would be labeled as racist.