Standard General, Apollo Global Acquire Tegna

Standard General has announced a complex deal on Tuesday with Apollo Global Management to acquire TV station owner Tegna for $24 a share, or roughly $8.6 billion.

Tegna — spun off from newspaper giant Gannett in 2015 as a separate, publicly traded company — operates 64 TV (including KING 5 & KONG 16 Seattle) and 2 radio stations across 54 US markets.

Following the close of the transaction, Cox will acquire Tegna stations in Austin (KVUE), Dallas (WFAA and KMPX) and Houston (KHOU and KTBU) from Standard General. Tegna owns 64 stations in 51 markets, including top-4 network affiliates in the top 25 markets. It owns multicast networks True Crime, Twist and Quest.

Following the close of the transaction, Standard Media CEO Deb McDermott will take over as CEO of Tegna and Soo Kim, founding partner of Standard General, will take over as chairman for the company. Current CEO Dave Lougee will depart the company.

Private equity giant Apollo Global Management, a longtime investor in local TV, would provide financial backing in exchange for preferred shares, according to the report in Bloomberg. (Deadline)