The Bonten Media Group has purchased BlueStone Television for $230 million. Bonten is a newly formed company headed by Randy Bongarten, formerly the president of Emmis Television. The company is backed by New York private equity firm Diamond Castle Holdings.
“We are thrilled to have completed the acquisition of BlueStone Television and look forward to working together with BlueStone's talented employees as we embark upon the next stage in the history of this fine group of television stations," said Bongarten in a prepared statement.
Bonten now owns or has service agreements with 14 stations with various network affiliations in 8 markets. Included are three digital multicast stations.
“The BlueStone stations are a terrific group of assets to acquire as the first step toward achieving our goal to create one of the leaders in the television broadcast industry,” said David Wittels, cofounder and senior managing director of Diamond Castle.
The group of stations was acquired from Providence Equity Partners, who subsequently made a $1.1 billion deal to acquire Clear Channel Television.
The markets include Tri-Cities in Tennessee and Virginia; Greenville-New Bern-Washington, NC; Chico-Redding, CA; Abilene-Sweetwater, TX; Missoula, MT; Butte-Bozeman, MT; Eureka, CA; and San Angelo, TX.
