Scripps Networks Seen Luring Disney as Trust Disbands: Real M&A

Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., the television home of Paula Deen’s mashed potatoes, is poised to lure bids even with the stock at a record high now that the controlling family trust has disbanded.

The owner of the Travel Channel, HGTV and most of the Food Network has the second-fastest projected sales growth through 2015 among 13 U.S. media companies valued at $1 billion or more, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Scripps Networks, which split from E.W. Scripps Co.’s newspaper assets in 2008, also offers the industry’s highest return on assets at 14 percent.