SPRING CLEARING
Sinclair-Tribune Media deal is close: sources
President Trump’s Justice Department, barring any lastminute changes, is days away from clearing the controversial $6.6 billion acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcasting, The Post has learned.
Antitrust lawyers at the department, which has primary oversight, have recently reached out to colleagues at the Federal Communications Commission to advise them of the move, one source familiar with the matter said.
As currently configured, a post-merger Sinclair would own 223 stations, covering 72 percent of US households.
To gain regulatory approval, Sinclair, which is acquiring 42 Tribune stations, is selling 13 of them, sources said. Justice approval will come after Sinclair announces agreements on the divestitures, they said.
The FCC will continue its review, which is seen as a much easier hurdle to clear. That decision is expected in August, a source said.
The merger has run into some resistance, in part, because of the recent revelation that Sinclair’s conservative owners were behind a decision to have all local anchors read the same scripted commentaries.
On April 2, Trump addressed the criticism tweeting, “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
Earlier this month, 11 Democratic senators wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai opposing the deal — saying Sinclair is not serving the public interest. The lawmakers called on the FCC to launch an investigation, but Pai denied the request saying it would conflict with the freedom of the press.
For its part, Sinclair said the commentaries serve “no po- litical agenda” and are meant to differentiate its news programming from less reliable sources.
Sinclair reluctantly agreed to increase the number of stations it will sell to 13 from 10, sources said — including stations in the Harrisburg, Pa., and Greensboro, NC, markets.
The antitrust lawyers are tasked to red flag station owners with too much control in any one market.
After months of delay, Sinclair agreed to sell stations in 10 of the 11 markets that overlap with Tribune Media stations, sources said. It also has agreed to sell three stations, including Tribune’s WPIX in New York, where it has no current presence to meet the FCC’s national ownership cap.
Sinclair, when announcing the May 2017 merger agreement, said it expected the deal to close in the fourth quarter of that year.
The buyer has agreed to pay $43.50 for Tribune Media, whose shares closed Wednesday up 1 percent to $40.33.
Current Wall Street odds hold there to be an 83 percent chance the deal is cleared, and that will likely rise to 90 percent after Justice Department approval, an analyst said.
Sinclair’s earnings have been falling recently increasing the parties’ urge to merge.
In March, JPMorgan said in an analyst report it was reducing Sinclair’s adjusted 2018 Ebitda to $850 million from $999 million.
The Justice Department did not return calls. Sinclair, through a spokesman, said it expects “full approval”