FTVLive told you that Gray Television had agreed to buy the Meredith TV stations.

While the deal seemed to be done, Meredith then informed Gray that another group had stepped up and made a bigger offer than Gray to buy up Meredith.

Gray issued a press release saying that they had to amend their offer to buy the Meredith stations.

In the release Gray wrote:

Gray Television, Inc. (“Gray”) (NYSE: GTN) today confirmed that Meredith Corporation (“Meredith”) recently informed Gray that, after announcing the definitive agreement with Gray, it had received an unsolicited proposal to acquire its Local Media Group (“LMG”) division, including all of Meredith’s broadcast television stations, from another party. Gray subsequently offered to amend the parties’ Merger Agreement to increase the total consideration payable by Gray from approximately $14.50 per share in cash, or $2.7 billion in total enterprise value (after the spin off of Meredith’s National Media Group to the current Meredith shareholders), to $16.99 per share in cash, or $2.825 billion in total enterprise value; to increase certain fees due to the other party under certain termination events under the Merger Agreement; and to make certain other revisions. On June 2, 2021, Gray and Meredith entered into an amendment to reflect the revised terms.
Meredith has informed Gray that its Board of Directors unanimously approved the revised Gray proposal, citing superior certainty of value, regulatory considerations, path to close and expected timing.
Gray remains committed to moving forward with its pending acquisition of Meredith’s local television stations.

In other words, Meredith played the old, “we got a better offer” card and Gray had to doll out more money to buy up Meredith.

Proving once again, when it comes to Meredith, it’s always about the money.