Standard General L.P., a New York hedge fund, announced Tuesday that it will acquire TEGNA Inc., owner of Denver’s NBC affiliate 9News.

In a news release, Standard General officials said the deal creates “the nation’s largest minority-owned, woman-led broadcast group.”

The deal, finalized and approved by the TEGNA board of directors, carries a price tag of $24 per share in cash, with “an equity value of approximately $5.4 billion and an enterprise value of approximately $8.6 billion, including the assumption of debt,” according to the release.

The deal caps a prolonged effort by Standard General, and founding partner Soo Kim, to gain seats on the TEGNA board, Poynter, a journalism think tank, reported Tuesday.

Poynter mentioned a public attack Kim made against TEGNA in reference to its employee-to-profit ratio.

“The attack did not say that Standard General believed Tegna should cut staff, but it has to be unsettling for employees to know that their new station owner once stated that Tegna stations had two times more employees than their peers and that might bear on their profitability. In every takeover, the first fear is that the new owner will come in and slash jobs,” Poynter’s Al Tompkins wrote.

“As long-term investors in the television broadcasting industry, we have a deep admiration for TEGNA and the stations it operates and, in particular, for TEGNA’s talented employees and their commitment to serving their communities,” Kim said in the release. “We are excited to partner again with Deb McDermott, who previously spearheaded the broadcast group at Media General, where Standard General was a principal shareholder.”

McDermott will become CEO and Kim will serve as chair of a new board of directors.

Editor’s note: 9News is The Denver Gazette’s news partner.