MNG, better known as Digital First Media, owns numerous newspapers nationwide and has a reputation for deep cost cutting at the papers it acquires. It offered $12 a share in cash for Gannett, a 23 percent bump over the closing price on Friday.
In a letter to Gannett's board of directors on Monday, MNG Chairman R. Joseph Fuchs said Gannett had rebuffed his company's prior offers for a "strategic combination" and asserted that company leadership was incompetent. "Frankly, the team leading Gannett has not demonstrated that it's capable of effectively running this enterprise as a public company," Fuchs wrote. "Gannett shareholders cannot sit by and watch further value erode while the board casts about for a strategy and a leader, especially when there is an opportunity to maximize value right now."