Gov. OK With Icahn Gannett Stake

The federal government is OK with Carl Icahn's purchase of a 6.6% stake in Gannett.

That came in an early termination notice, signaling neither the Justice Department nor the Federal Trade Commission had any antitrust issues that would prompt them to either challenge the deal in court or put conditions on it.

Icahn's move was reported Aug. 15 in Gannett's USA Today, with the paper saying Icahn wanted a role in the company's split of its TV, digital and newspaper assets, based on an SEC filing in which Icahn says he and his partners want to discuss the split with management.

Gannett announced the split Aug. 5.

The move is a way to better gauge the performance of those sectors, which also means not tying declining print to burgeoning digital on one balance sheet.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.