By the gracenote of its Board of Directors, Tribune Media Co. shareholders are indeed getting a very special dividend as a result of its $560 million sale of Gracenote, the provider of media and entertainment metadata, to Nielsen.
Tribune Media on Tuesday (1/3) announced a special dividend of approximately $500 million — just as it said it would before Christmas, upon announcing its sale of Gracenote.
This means shareholders will benefit from a special cash dividend of $5.77 per share on the company’s Class A common stock and Class B common stock.
In addition, holders of Tribune Media warrants will receive a cash payment equal to the amount of the dividend paid per common share for each share of common stock such warrants are exercisable into.
The dividend is payable on Feb. 3, 2017 to stockholders and warrant holders of record at the close of business on Jan. 13.
The special dividend will be paid from existing cash.
Tribune Media is comprised of WGN-AM in Chicago, Tribune Broadcasting’s 42 owned or operated local television stations, the WGN America cable TV network and Antenna TV and THIS TV national multicast networks, Tribune Studios, and a variety of digital applications and websites including ScreenerTV.com and Covers.com.
In after-hours trading on Jan. 3, Tribune shares were at $36.
