Gannett Seeks Tribune Publishing Shareholders Support To Stop Directors Election

Gannett Inc GCI has approached Tribune Publishing Company TPUB again with a plea to ‘withhold' votes in respect of the annual meeting of the stockholders to be held on June 2. The company wanted the latter's shareholders to tell its board "Stop Obstructing the path to superior value."

Gannett also wanted Tribune shareholders to send a clear-cut message to the Tribune Board to engage themselves constructively in respect of its $15.00 a share unsolicited offer.

The media firm said, "Gannett believes the Tribune Board has shown a disregard for all its stockholders' best interests. Gannett urges Tribune stockholders to "WITHHOLD" votes for ALL of the Tribune director nominees and send a message to the Tribune Board to engage constructively with Gannett regarding its offer to acquire Tribune. Gannett believes the Tribune Board has prevented stockholders from realizing superior and certain cash value for their shares through a series of actions over the past few months."

Gannett indicated it would review whether to proceed with its acquisition offer taking into account the results of the "WITHHOLD" vote at Tribune's 2016 Annual Meeting and the latest Tribune actions. That included its response to $15.00 per share offer, which was spurned off by Tribune.

Gannett's revised $15.00 all-cash offer represented a premium of 99 percent to the $7.52 closing price of Tribune's common stock on April 22, the last trading day before Gannett publicly made its initial offer for Tribune. The $15.00 per share offer also represented a 76 percent premium to the $8.50 share price at which Tribune recently issued common stock to an entity controlled Michael Ferro.

The media firm urged Tribune stockholders to vote the GOLD proxy card to "WITHHOLD" votes from the election of all eight directors of the Tribune Publishing Company.