- Of the media companies in a three-way M&A triangle, Meredith Corp. (NYSE:MDP) fared the best today, moving up 5.1%, with no shortage of catalysts as it scored a $60M breakup fee along with first-look rights at some Media General (NYSE:MEG) assets, and posted an earnings beat in its Q2 results.
- Nexstar (NASDAQ:NXST) -- which will now buy Media General for $4.6B -- closed down 4.6%.
- Asked about other M&A possibilities for Meredith on its earnings call, CEO Steve Lacy hinted at staying tuned. "The television M&A world ... is going to be a little quiet till we get through the [spectrum] auction."
- "I love our position, with very, very low leverage and really cheap debt," he noted. In addition to that, though, "we have some digital assets that we're interested in. One of them interestingly enough would be beneficial for our Local Media and our National Media business and we're going to be presenting a couple of them to our board this coming weekend."
- The dividend is "very attractive" yielding almost 5%, and buybacks are on the horizon as well, says CFO Joe Ceryanec: "We have not been able to buy our shares back while we've been under the merger agreement and now that's behind us."
- Previously: Meredith up 3.2%; profits beat as nonpolitical ad revenues grow (Jan. 27 2016)
- Previously: Meredith clears way; Nexstar to buy Media General in $4.6B deal (Jan. 27 2016)