And, of course, selling The Weather Channel is the first step in Landmark Communications’ planned sale of its assets. Which would include my paper — The Virginian-Pilot — plus dailies in Roanoke and Greensboro, a slew of weeklies, TV stations and other media.
This, according to a brief story posted today at The New York Times‘ web site:
An investor group led by NBC Universal and two private equity firms appeared to be leading the bidding for the Weather Channel, as final offers were due Friday night, people briefed on the matter said. NBC, the Blackstone Group and Bain Capital were offering about $3.5 billion including debt, these people said.
$3.5 billion is a bit less than the $5 billion Landmark was reportedly hoping for. I guess it really is a buyer’s market.
The NYT piece said the winning bid could be announced as early as next week. Which fits with the timetable we had been given earlier.
After Jim Cantore (above) and the rest have been sold, Landmark can concentrate on selling its next-largest assets, including its three daily papers.
Read today’s NYT piece here. Read the most recent story — from May 19 — about potential buyers of the Pilot itself here.
Read our previous posts about the sale of The Virginian-Pilot: January 2, January 4, January 11, January 14, March 11.
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