Tribune Media Dodges Securities Suit Over Failed Sinclair Merger

Securities claims by investors who purchased Tribune Media Co. stock on the basis of its proposed merger with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, only to have the merger fall through, were rejected by the Seventh Circuit.

The merger was announced in 2017 but was abandoned in 2018 by Tribune, which claimed Sinclair didn’t comply with its contractual commitment to use it best efforts to satisfy the demands of federal regulators. Nexstar Media Group purchased Tribune in 2019.

In late 2017, while the merger agreement with Sinclair was in place, Tribune’s largest investor Oaktree Capital Management sold some of its shares through ...