Sinclair to buy Tribune for $3.9 billion

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. will buy Tribune Media Co. for about $3.9 billion, a deal made possible after the Federal Communications Commission voted last month to ease a limit on TV-station ownership in the United States.

Sinclair will pay $43.50 a share for the Chicago-based broadcasting company. It also will assume debt of $2.7 billion.

The acquisition of Tribune gives Sinclair TV stations in big media markets such as New York, Chicago and Miami, strengthening its hand in negotiations with pay-TV distributors and major broadcast networks. The larger scale also would help the combined company face down online competitors vying for a piece of the local advertising pie.

In Iowa, Sinclair owns KGAN, the CBS affiliate in Cedar Rapids, as well as Fox affiliates KFXA in Waterloo, KDSM in Des Moines and KPTH in Sioux City, and CBS-affiliate KMEG, also in Sioux City. Tribune Media owns WHO, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines.

21st Century Fox Inc., with funding from Blackstone Group LP, had been planning an offer for Tribune but in the end didn't submit a bid, according to a person familiar with the matter. Nexstar Media Group Inc. also was preparing an offer, according to people familiar with the matter.

The marriage of two of the largest local TV station owners in the United States was made easier last month when the FCC restored a rule that allows TV station groups to count just half their coverage area for Ultra High Frequency stations to comply with a 39 percent nationwide cap set by Congress.