It appears that the deal for Nexstar to acquire Media General is now dead. 

Nexstar says that it has reached “an impasse” in its negotiations to acquire Media General following the rejection by Media General’s board of Nexstar’s revised bid of $16.31 per Media General share.

“Despite strong support from Media General shareholders for our past proposals, we have reached an impasse in our negotiations to acquire Media General as their board has again rejected our very compelling offer and responded with an unrealistic counter proposal,” said Perry Sook, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar. “The response from Media General is disappointing as our revised offer reflects our recent confirmation of our projections for first year synergies and our continued focus on structuring a transaction that would enable the combined company to generate prodigious free cash flow that would be allocated for leverage reduction, additional strategic investments and the return of capital to shareholders.”

With that deal dead, it now appears that Media General and Meredith will proceed. 

But, right now it is just a bunch of hot air from all sides.