• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, November 1, 2016

Well, that’s that. After six months of high-profile negotiations, maneuvering and a deeply misguided rebranding, Gannett’s bid for Tronc has ended up in a big old pile of nothing.

On Tuesday, Gannett officially announced that it is withdrawing its offer, apparently following last-minute objections from lenders over the terms of the deal.

In a brief statement released Tuesday morning, Gannett both confirmed that it had been in discussions with Tronc about the potential deal, and that it “has determined not to pursue an acquisition” of the fellow newspaper publisher.

The statement didn’t specify why Gannett decided to throw in the towel. But last week, Bloomberg reported that several banks lined up to finance the deal got cold feet, objecting that Gannett’s bid of $18.75 per share overvalued Tronc.

Before news of Gannett’s initial offer became known this spring, Tronc (then Tribune Publishing) stock was trading at $7.52, meaning Gannett’s most recent offer represented a premium of around 150% over this baseline price. In the interim, Gannett’s repeated offers had helped driven Tronc’s share price up to $16.70.

The news that Gannett is abandoning its bid is a bitter pill for shareholders who pressured Tronc’s management to accept the offer in the belief they were unlikely to get a better deal.

However, Tronc chairman Michael Ferro, who only took control of the company in February of this year, early on expressed his determination to maintain control, adopting expedients including a “poison pill” defense and bringing in a new investor, Patrick Soon-Shiong’s Nant Capital, towards that end.

Ferro also rebranded Tribune Publishing by bestowing a new name, Tronc, in June. It stands for “Tribune Online Content.”