• by Wayne Friedman , February 22, 2022

TV station group Tegna -- which has been the subject of acquisition talks for months -- has been sold to Standard General, an investment hedge fund firm, and investors led by Apollo Global Management and its Cox Media Group, for $5.4 billion in cash.

The deal is priced at $24 a share, which would be 39% higher than Tegna’s stock price in September 2021.

Tuesday morning's price of Tegna stock was up 7.4% to $22.49. When including Tegna debt, the deal has a total value of $8.6 billion.

Veteran TV station senior executive Deborah McDermott will become chief executive officer. She is currently chief executive officer of Standard Media Group, a Nashville-based TV and digital media company.

McDermott previously was chief operating officer of Media General and president and CEO of Young Broadcasting. Dave Lougee, president and CEO of Tegna, is departing.

The deal comes as other TV station groups have made major acquisitions in recent years -- including Nexstar Media Group’s deal for Tribune Media in a $6.4 billion deal and Apollo Global buying a majority stake in Cox TV station, also in 2019, for $3 billion.

With 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets, Tegna is the largest owner of top four network affiliates in the top 25 markets among independent station groups.