Another big media merger is falling into place.
Cox Enterprises, which includes TV stations, newspapers and radio stations, will sell a majority interest of the company’s TV group to Apollo Global Management LLC. Cox is involved in 20 media markets and 100 news outlets that it says reach 52 million Americans.
The new company will be based in Atlanta and will include Cox’s flagship powerhouse TV station WSB in Atlanta along with KIRO (Seattle), WFTV (Orlando), WSOC (Charlotte, North Carolina), WFTX (Boston), WPXI (Pittsburgh), WHBQ (Memphis, Tennessee) and others.
Tegna, Scripps, Nexstar and others have all expressed interest in buying the Cox TV stations.
The company’s press release included these statements which focused on television:
“These stations have decades of experience breaking barriers and delivering the news and information their communities need daily,” said Alex Taylor, president and CEO, Cox Enterprises. “We wanted to find a company that is committed to investing in broadcast television now and in the future, and we found that in Apollo.”
“We are extremely excited for our funds to acquire a majority interest in Cox Media Group’s broadcast television stations and are humbled by Cox Enterprises’ decision to entrust us to steward these stations and carry on the Cox legacy. We have an extraordinary amount of respect and admiration for the journalistic integrity, news quality, and commitment to community across Cox Media Group’s broadcast stations,” said David Sambur, senior partner at Apollo. “We look forward, in collaboration with Cox Enterprises, to supporting the high standards to which each station operates and contributing to the platform’s future growth and prosperity.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story didn’t specifiy that the sale will be for Cox’s TV group. The headline and story have been updated to reflect that. We apologize for the error.
