Gannett Closes Cable Sale
ARLINGTON, VA – The previously announced sale of the assets of Multimedia Cablevision, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett’s Multimedia Inc., to Cox Communications, Inc. of Atlanta, Ga., was completed today.
The sale price for the cable company is approximately $2.7 billion in cash, which results in an after-tax gain of $740 million. The gain will be reported in Gannett’s first quarter, 2000. The gain and cable operating results will be reported as discontinued operations.
Gannett Co., Inc. is an international news and information company that publishes 74 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper. The company also owns a variety of non-daily publications, including USA WEEKEND, a weekly magazine. Newsquest plc, a wholly owned Gannett subsidiary acquired in mid-1999, is the largest regional newspaper publisher in England with 11 daily newspapers and a variety of non-daily publications, including Berrow’s Worcester Journal, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the world. Gannett also operates 21 television stations.