Alden sues Lee after news publisher rejects its takeover bid
Business
Alden sues Lee after news publisher rejects its takeover bid
By Josh Funk | AP
Yesterday at 10:48 a.m. EST
The Alden Global Capital hedge fund stepped up its attempts to buy Lee Enterprises this week, filing a lawsuit that accuses its board of denying shareholders of the newspaper publisher a voice in the matter. ... The publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Buffalo News and dozens of other newspapers rejected Alden's offer to buy the company for $24 a share, or roughly $141 million, last Thursday calling the bid, grossly undervalued.
Alden argued in the lawsuit filed Wednesday that Lee shouldnt have rejected its offer without even talking to the hedge fund. Alden also said Lee shouldnt have refused to accept its nomination of three outside directors for technical reasons and has asked the court to order Lee to accept those nominees.
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The New York hedge fund that owns 6.3% of Lees stock became one of the largest newspaper owners in the nation after swallowing all of Tribunes newspapers earlier this year, but it has a history of imposing severe cost cuts and layoffs at newspapers.
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Lee publishes nearly every daily newspaper in Nebraska in addition to those in St. Louis and Buffalo. Unions that represent journalists at those papers have come out strongly against Alden. ... Alden has bought up roughly 200 publications across the country in recent years through a series of acquisitions. Besides the Tribune papers, Alden also owns the Denver Post, Orange County Register and Boston Herald.