Could Meredith buy WHO-TV or KDSM?

Meredith Corp. is looking to buy some Sinclair Broadcast Group television stations as that conglomerate finalizes a merger with Tribune Media. 

Steve Lacy, executive chairman of the Meredith board, told an audience at a media conference Monday morning that he would ask the company's board of directors later in the day for permission to bid on certain Sinclair television properties.

Sinclair has announced plans to divest from some of its TV stations to stay in line with Federal Communications Commission rules on media ownership as it wraps up a $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media, which owns the Chicago Tribune and TV stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. 

Yahoo Finance reported that Sinclair plans to divest at least one station in eight markets, including Des Moines, where it owns Fox affiliate KDSM. Tribune owns NBC affiliate WHO in Des Moines.

"We’re going to bid for what we want as opposed to what they say they want to sell," Lacy said Monday. 

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Meredith would leverage debt to acquire Sinclair properties just weeks after it closed on a $2.8 billion purchase of Time Inc. But Lacy said the company still has about half a billion dollars in leeway to make future purchases. And with the high cash flows associated with TV stations, such buys "don't hurt our leverage all that much."

Meredith will stay disciplined in any bidding war, Lacy said.

"We establish a starting point and we establish an end point for each one of the stations and as the price gets too high, we just walk away," he said. 

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Lacy reiterated Meredith's commitment to finding up to $500 million in cost savings from its purchase of Time. As an example, he pointed to legal, IT and finance workers duplicated in Time's old New York headquarters and Meredith's Des Moines offices. Nearly all of that work will be centralized in Des Moines. 

Time Inc. employed some 350 accountants in New York, while Meredith has its own staff of 125 accountants in Iowa. Lacy said the merged company can probably get by with 200 to 250 total accountants. 

"And the price is about half in Des Moines of what it is in New York," Lacy said. "Those things are within our control."

Lacy was speaking at the Deutsche Bank 2018 Media, Telecom and Business Services Conference in Palm Beach, Florida.