The boards of both E.W. Scripps Company and Journal Communications have approved the duo’s wedding, the FCC is aboard, and closing is pegged for the beginning of next month.
Scripps is celebrating by sending $60M to investors in the form of a dividend amounting to about $1 per share. It will go to shareholders of Scripps stock as of 3/25/15 and will be payable on closing day.
Shareholders of Scripps and Journal will also get a stake in the spin-off spawned by the merger, Journal Media Group, which will house the newspapers each company contributed to the dowry.
The resulting television group will be the #5 independent operating company. It will also operate the radio stations coming from Journal.
Scripps noted that any person who sells shares of Journal prior to 3/25 will not participate in the distribution of the newspaper company stock; and Scripps shareholders who sell prior to 3/25 will be missing out on both the newspaper shares and the dividend.
Here’s the breakdown as to how current shares will be handled going into the merger:
Journal Communications’ class A and class B shareholders will receive 0.5176 Scripps class A common shares and 0.1950 shares in Journal Media Group for each Journal Communications share.
Scripps shareholders will receive 0.2500 shares in Journal Media Group for each Scripps class A common share and each Scripps common voting share.
No fractional shares will be issued. Shareholders will receive cash in lieu of fractional shares.
