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McClatchy offer is accepted:

The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, in the biggest deal in its 149-year history, won the bidding war Sunday for Knight Ridder Inc., the nation's second-largest newspaper chain.

Knight Ridder's board of directors reportedly accepted a buyout offer from McClatchy at approximately $4.5 billion.

The New York Times reported on its Web site Sunday that McClatchy will pay for Knight Ridder with about 60 percent cash and 40 percent in McClatchy stock. The Wall Street Journal said on its Web site that McClatchy was paying $67.50 a share.

McClatchy officials wouldn't comment, and a Knight Ridder spokesman couldn't be reached for comment. But an announcement on the deal was expected today.

On its face, the deal would quadruple McClatchy's revenue to more than $4 billion a year, make it the second-largest U.S. newspaper chain in terms of circulation and bring into the fold such prestigious papers as the Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News and Miami Herald.

And? And...

Conrad Fink, a newspaper management professor at the University of Georgia, said he wouldn't be surprised if McClatchy already has a plan in place to sell several Knight Ridder papers, including those in Philadelphia and St. Paul, Minn.

Those are two of Knight Ridder's least profitable markets, according to a report last fall by the Morgan Stanley & Co. investment firm. And McClatchy might be forced by antitrust regulators to sell the St. Paul paper because it competes against the McClatchy-owned Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

Anbody want to buy a second-fiddle business with relatively low profitability and sagging employee morale in an industry whose future prospects are uncertain at best? Start putting your pennies together now.