As Landmark Communications Inc.
nears a sale of its prize possession, the Weather Channel, the family-owned company is now pushing ahead with the sale of
Dominion Enterprises, an advertising Web site and publication business formed in 2006, and could apparently sell for $1.4 billion.
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"Landmark was trying to sell everything, including its newspapers and TV stations originally for that $5 billion," said analyst David C. Joyce of Miller Tabak + Co. LLC.
In January, Richard Barry, Landmark's vice chairman, told The Virginian-Pilot, one of the newspapers the company owns, that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Lehman Brothers Inc. were hired to explore "strategic alternatives'' for the company as a whole or in parts. Almost immediately, investors showed interest in the Weather Channel, but scant interest in Dominion or its broadcast assets.
Private equity firms are expected to also take interest in Dominion, according to the Financial Times.
In addition to Dominion and Weather Channel, Landmark issued books in February for its two CBS affiliates, KLAS-Las Vegas and WTVF-Nashville, Tenn., with each asset anticipated to fetch upwards of $200 million, people familiar with the process said. For the Nashville property, broadcasters Local TV LLC, Raycom Media Inc., Media General Inc. and Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc. are each expected to participate, while Local TV, LIN TV Corp. and Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. were each expected to be involved in the KLAS-Las Vegas bidding.
Landmark's other assets could also be on the block. Those assets include online marketing firm Q Interactive, a number of franchise recruitment Web sites, Continental Broadband, The Virginian-Pilot, the Greensboro News & Record, The Roanoke Times and Capital-Gazette Communications, which publishes more than 50 community newspapers.
When the strategic review was first announced in January, the only mention of a bidder for the newspaper assets was from religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who reportedly was interestered in The Virginian-Pilot. - Maria Woehr
See Dealscape: Weather Channel auction enters latest round
See Dealscape: NBC and buyout firms in lead for Weather Channel with $3.5B bid
See Dealscape: Joyce: Who is bidding for Weather Channel?
