Donnelley Makes a Bid for Quebecor

Commercial printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons has offered to buy competitor Quebecor World's assets and properties for approximately $1.35 billion, Reuters reported this week. The Montreal-based Quebecor is hoping to emerge from bankruptcy protection—which it filed for in January 2008—this summer.

According to the report, Donnelley will pay Quebecor's debtors about $957 million in cash, and 30 million of its shares, valued at approximately $394.2 million. The transaction is not subject to any financing conditions or shareholder approval.

"We believe that the proposed transaction set out in this letter is superior for the Quebecor debtors and their creditors to the restructuring proposed by the plans in their current form," Thomas Quinlan, Donnelley's CEO, wrote in a letter to Quebecor management.

Quebecor World's board is currently reviewing the proposal, according to Reuters. The printer still plans to proceed with court hearings in Canada and the United States later this week to consider the approval of its restructuring plan.