What happened
Shares of television broadcasting company Sinclair Broadcast Group (NASDAQ:SBGI) soared on Monday, rising as much as 32.1%. As of 11:30 a.m. EDT, shares were up about 28%.
The stock's gain follows Sinclair's announcement on Friday, after market close, of an agreement to acquire Walt Disney's (NYSE:DIS) 21 regional sports networks, which the media giant gained through its recent acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox assets.
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So what
Sinclair is buying the regional sports networks for $9.6 billion. But deal's total enterprise value was determined to be $10.6 billion when adjusting for minority equity interests.
"This is a very exciting transaction for Sinclair to be able to acquire highly complementary assets," said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley in a press release about the transaction.
Last year, Disney made an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that it could acquire Twenty-First Century Fox assets but only if it subsequently sold the regional sports networks gained through the acquisition.
Now what
Sinclair's acquisition of these regional sports networks, of course, is subject to customary closing conditions and consent from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ripley said the transaction is expected to be "highly accretive to free cash flow" and represents "an extraordinary opportunity to diversify Sinclair's content sources and revenue streams with high-quality assets that are driving live viewing."
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