Nexstar Accused of Thumb-Nosing Judge in TEGNA Deal

The battle over the Nexstar/TEGNA acquisition just got a lot spicier, and the lawyers fighting the deal are running back to court claiming Nexstar is blatantly ignoring a federal judge's orders.

Back in April, U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley threw a major wrench in the deal by issuing a preliminary injunction. He ruled that 13 states and DIRECTV were likely to win their antitrust lawsuit claiming the takeover violates the Clayton Act.

The judge laid out crystal-clear ground rules:

• Nexstar must keep TEGNA operating as a completely separate, independent business.

• Nexstar must set up strict firewall controls so competitively sensitive info isn't shared between the two companies.

• Nexstar is strictly forbidden from influencing TEGNA's management.

So, what did Nexstar do?

The DirecTv lawyers claim that Nexstar went ahead and installed a brand-new Board of Directors at TEGNA made up entirely of Nexstar brass—including their CEO, President, CFO, General Counsel, and a former broadcast division president.

When opponents pointed out that stacking the board with Nexstar execs pretty blatantly violates the "don't influence management" rule, Nexstar refused to dismantle it.

Now, the plaintiffs are calling for a hearing in early September, asking the judge to step in and fix it. They want Judge Nunley to kick the Nexstar executives off TEGNA’s board, force Nexstar to hand over monthly compliance reports, share key TEGNA materials, and give them fast-track access to internal documents to see what else Nexstar might be up to behind closed doors.

Stay tuned. September could get messy.