TRONC NAMES PRICE

Seeks $20 a share

Tronc shares surged as much as 8 percent on Friday, to $17.66, in the wake of a report that USA Today publisher Gannett had raised its offer for the rival newspaper publisher to roughly $18 a share.

The sweetened offer is 20 percent more than the $15per-share offer that Tronc, formerly Tribune Publishing, rejected in May.

Tronc, which publishes the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other papers, did not immediately reject the offer — which was made last week, according to the report from Politico.

Intense negotiations are under way within Tronc over whether to accept the offer, Politico reported.

Tronc Chairman Michael Ferro is said to be seeking a slightly higher offer — somewhere around the $20 a share level, according to the report.

“Apparently no longer a question of whether to sell or not, but for how much,” Ken Doctor wrote in the Politico report.

Investor excitement over the second sweetened offer — a first unsolicited bid of $12.25 was lobbed into Tronc’s lap in April — cooled in the heat of Friday afternoon trading. Tronc shares closed at $16.84, up 3.1 percent.

The shares added another 1.1 percent, to $17.03 in afterhours trading.

Ferro, who quickly rejected the first two bids, saying Gannett was “trying to steal” the Chicago company, now appears to have been spot on.

Gannett shares slipped 9 cents on Friday, to $11.93, and are down 32 percent from their 2016 high of $17.56 hit in April.

It’s unclear how high Gannett Chief Executive Bob Dickey will go. Dickey and Gannett Chairman John Jeffry Louis met with Ferro and pal Justin Dearborn in Los Angeles last week.

The Gannett board had given its negotiators a range of possible bids so that there was some wiggle room, one source close to the situation said.

Most expect a slightly sweeter bid to be forthcoming.

Gannett also feels the talks were “getting close to the point they’d walk, if they can’t get a deal.”