• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 19, 2020

Private equity firm The Najafi Companies and “faith and family” media company Trinity Broadcasting Network have announced a joint bid to acquire television broadcaster Tegna Inc.

The latest bid is an all-cash, $20-per-share offer valuing Tegna at about $4.4 billion.

Apollo Global Management, and more recently media mogul Byron Allen, also tendered $20-per-share, all-cash offers. The Apollo offer also values Tegna at $4.4 billion, while the Allen offer values it at about $8.5 billion, according to various reports. Gray Television had bid $20-per-share in cash and stock, but reportedly withdrew that bid this week. 

Fort Worth, Texas-based Trinity owns 32 global networks across more than 175 countries. Najafi focuses its investments in media, technology, retail, consumer and sports companies.

Tegna owns 62 television stations in 51 U.S. markets, reaching 41.7 million, or 39%, of total television households. It is the largest owner of NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox stations in the top 25 U.S. markets.

Activist investor Standard General LP, which owns about 9.7% of Tegna, has nominated a total of five candidates for Tegna’s board, setting up a proxy fight, and has said that Tegna should entertain the Gray and Apollo offers, according to The Wall Street Journal.