Cooke to Begin Tender Offer for Multimedia

Jack Kent Cooke, less than a week after the Federal Communications Commission allowed him to go ahead with his hostile takeover bid for Multimedia Inc., announced Monday that his One, Two Corp. will make a tender offer of $70.01 per share for 6.73 million shares of Multimedia’s outstanding stock.

Cooke’s purchase of the stock, 40.3% of the outstanding shares, plus the 1.6 million shares that he and his affiliates already own would give him a majority of Multimedia’s outstanding stock.

Following the purchase of the 6.73 million shares, Cooke said he intends to extend to all Multimedia shareholders an offer of $70.01 cash and securities per share.

On Friday, the FCC approved Cooke’s request to name former Sen. Eugene McCarthy as a trustee to gather stock during Cooke’s hostile takeover bid of the Greenville, S.C., communications company.

Rejected Offer

Cooke, who owns the National Football League’s Washington Redskins, made an unsolicited bid to take over Multimedia in April at $63 a share. That offer was rejected by Multimedia, which expanded its war chest with a $300-million bank credit line to purchase outstanding shares.

Multimedia owns 43 newspapers, 10 radio stations, five television stations and operates more than 100 cable-TV systems. Earlier this year, it turned aside a takeover bid of $61 a share from Lorimar, the Culver City-based producer of movies and television shows, including “Dallas.”

Cooke, who is listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 400 richest Americans with a net worth “in excess of $600 million,” owns the Chrysler Building in New York; Kent Plaza, Phoenix; Elmendorf Racing & Breeding Farm, Lexington, Ky.; Video Tape Enterprises, Los Angeles, and Virginia real estate in addition to the Redskins.