REPORT: PULITZER ON BLOCK; COULD BRING $1.5 BILLION DJ buys MarketWatch; GCI buys HomeTown; KRI to sell land

NewsInc, Nov 22, 2004

With the mergers and acquisitions lamp obviously on, last week saw three deals officially announced, one finalized and another apparently leaked to the press.

Reuters reported late Friday that Pulitzer Inc. is considering putting itself up for sale. The company, which had an annual income last year of $439.6 million, could go for as much as $1.5 billion, the wire service reported.

Robert Woodworth, president and chief executive of Pulitzer, wouldn't comment on the report Friday evening. "This is really just speculation," he told the company's flagship St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "It's our policy not to comment on speculation." Industry analysts agreed that there had been few other indications of a Pulitzer sale previous to the Reuters report.

The week started with the announcement of an acquisition: Dow Jones & Co. said it would buy MarketWatch Inc. of San Francisco, the provider of advertising-supported on-line stock market and financial news, for $463 million.

MarketWatch had been discussing a possible acquisition with a number of companies; published accounts included both the New York Times Co. and the Washington Post Co. as suitors. Additionally, Viacom Inc. -- owner of the CBS Television Network and a minority investor in MarketWatch -- had said it was interested in taking over the firm.

DJ said it expected the acquisition to positively effect results in 2006 but that the purchase itself would take earnings per share down about five cents in 2005.

On Tuesday, Knight Ridder of San Jose said it would sell about 10 acres of land it currently uses as a parking lot in downtown Miami. The land is in front of the Miami Herald building and is used for employee parking, and across the street from the property the city has recently built a new performing arts center.

With the center's construction, said Larry Marbert, vice president of production and facilities at Knight Ridder, "we have had several inquiries as to whether we could be open to an alternative use -- enough so that we finally determined that the most sensible thing for us would be to consider divesting it."

On Wednesday The E.W. Scripps Co. said that it had completed its acquisition of the Great American Country cable and satellite TV network for $140 million. The acquisition makes the fifth national cable channel owned by the Cincinnati-based company, whose stable includes the Home & Garden Network and the Food Network.

And on Friday, Gannett Co. Inc., said it planned to purchase the assets of HomeTown Communications Network Inc., a publisher of community newspapers, telephone directories and non-dailies. No terms of the deal were revealed.

HomeTown owns the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers Inc., of Livonia, Mich., as well as other papers in Michigan, including the newly started Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell, Mich., and papers in Ohio and Kentucky, totalling 62 non-daily titles.

Because Gannett circulates papers in markets where HomeTown publishes -- including Detroit (where it has the News) and Lansing, Mich. (where it has the Michigan State Journal), the deal will need to be reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department.

Just when you thought everything worth buying had been bought, here's a bunch of new deals. Most startling is the Pulitzer story, but its understandable that following the restructuring of Freedom Communications Inc. earlier this year, the Pulitzer family might have decided their properties were worth more than they thought.