Tegna Inc. completes spinoff of Cars.com

Published June 1, 2017 by Robert Powell, III

McLean-based media company Tegna Inc. has completed its spinoff of Cars.com, creating two publicly traded companies.

With the completion of the spin-off, Dave Lougee was named Tegna’s president and CEO while joining the company’s board of directors. He succeeds Gracia Martore, who has retired.
Cars.com began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, trading under the symbol CARS. Cars.com will be headquartered in Chicago.

Joining Lougee’s executive leadership team are: Victoria Harker, executive vice president and chief financial officer; Lynn Beall, executive vice president and COO of media operations; Anne Bentley, vice president and chief communications officer; Ed Busby, senior vice president of strategy; Todd Mayman, executive vice president and chief legal and administrative officer; and Jeff Newman, senior vice president and chief human resources officer.

Marjorie Magner will continue as chairman of Tegna’s board of directors. Jennifer Dulski, Howard D. Elias, Lidia Fonseca, Scott K. McCune, Henry W. McGee, Susan Ness, Bruce P. Nolop and Neal Shapiro also will continue to serve as directors.

Before becoming president and CEO, Lougee was president of Tegna Media, overseeing 46 broadcast stations in 38 markets. Under Lougee’s leadership, the  broadcast portfolio doubled after the acquisitions of Belo Corp. and six London Broadcasting stations.

Lougee was named president of Gannett Broadcasting in July 2007 and previously was executive vice president, media operations, for Belo. At Belo, he also served as senior vice president; president and general manager of TV and cable operations in Seattle/Tacoma; and news director at KING in Seattle/Tacoma.

The spinoff was completed through a pro-rata distribution of Cars.com’s outstanding common shares to Tegna stockholders of record at the close of business on May 18.

Stockholders retained their Tegna  shares and received one share of Cars.com for every three shares of Tegna stock they owned on the record date.