Topic: How To Invest

Spinoffs, Takeovers and Special Situations Hotline – Friday, February 15, 2019

Article Excerpt

LEE ENTERPRISES INC., $2.61, symbol LEE on New York, owns daily newspapers, digital products and nearly 300 weekly and specialty publications serving 49 markets in 21 states. The company’s newspapers have a combined average daily circulation of 700,000 and 1.1 million on Sunday. In print alone, they attract as many as three million readers. Lee’s markets are largely clustered in the Midwest: St. Louis, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; Madison, Wisconsin; Davenport, Iowa; Billings, Montana; Bloomington, Illinois; and Tucson, Arizona. In mid-2018, the company entered an agreement with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to manage print and digital operations for BH Media’s 30 daily newspapers, 47 paid weekly newspapers and 32 other print products. Under the deal, which has an initial term of five years, Lee will receive an annual fee of $5 million, plus a percentage of adjusted annual earnings over $34 million. The company expects to earn about $50 million in total fees over five years. On January 16, 2019, activist investor Cannell Capital…