Meredith Says It is Interested in Some Sinclair Stations

Meredith says that it is interested in buying some stations from Sinclair after it finalizes a merger with Tribune Media. 

The Des Moines Register reports that Steve Lacy, executive chairman of the Meredith board, told an audience at a media conference Monday morning that he would ask the company's board of directors later in the day for permission to bid on certain Sinclair television properties.

Sinclair has announced plans to divest from some of its TV stations to stay in line with Federal Communications Commission rules on media ownership as it wraps up a $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media, which owns the Chicago Tribune and TV stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. 

Yahoo Finance reported that Sinclair plans to divest at least one station in eight markets, including Des Moines, where it owns Fox affiliate KDSM. Tribune owns NBC affiliate WHO in Des Moines.

"We’re going to bid for what we want as opposed to what they say they want to sell," Lacy said Monday. 

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Meredith would leverage debt to acquire Sinclair properties just weeks after it closed on a $2.8 billion purchase of Time Inc. But Lacy said the company still has about half a billion dollars in leeway to make future purchases. And with the high cash flows associated with TV stations, such buys "don't hurt our leverage all that much."

Meredith will stay disciplined in any bidding war, Lacy said.

"We establish a starting point and we establish an end point for each one of the stations and as the price gets too high, we just walk away," he said. 

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