Univision Receives Buyout Offer Late Wednesday (UVN)

A private investor group is offering about $10.7 billion to acquire Univision Communications (UVN), the nation's second largest Spanish broadcaster.

The bid of about $35 per share came from a motley crew of private equity big names: Madison Dearborn Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, and media millionaire Haim Saban all got a piece of the action.

Regrettably, shares of Los Angeles-based Univision tumbled more than 4 percent Wednesday on news of the offer, most likely because this news has been factored into the stock for months and because the price tag was truly pathetic -- $35 a share? Where's the shareholder value in that? We think these fat cat buyers should cough up at least $42 smackers for UVN.

There's no need for us to iterate the reasons why we like Univision, namely because we already did in a positive report we published back in March. As we argued then, Univision is a compelling pure play on a mushrooming demographic that's ready to spend its newfound wealth.

Comments

[Liebs:]

With only one (or maybe two) bidders you're not going to get a premium like $42.

2006 Jun 22 02:43 PM