More than three years after VyStar Credit Union called off an agreement to buy a commercial bank amid opposition from community bankers, the issue is still a hot topic in the industry.
When Jacksonville-based Community First Credit Union of Florida announced an agreement Nov. 18 to acquire Waycross, Georgia-based First Southern Bank, the Independent Community Bankers of America trade association fired back.
Community First’s announcement came a day after El Paso, Texas-based GECU Credit Union announced an agreement to buy Roswell, New Mexico-based Bank of the Southwest.
“With large tax-exempt credit unions announcing two acquisitions of Main Street community banks in as many days following last year’s record number of deals, ICBA and the nation’s community bankers continue our call for policymakers to address the harmful impact these deals have on local communities,” ICBA President Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a Nov. 18 news release.
The main argument from bankers about credit union acquisitions of commercial banks has been that credit unions are exempt from paying federal taxes, and bankers say that gives them a financial advantage in making these deals.
The ICBA has called for credit unions with more than $1 billion in assets to lose that tax exemption. Community First has about $2.9 billion in assets.
According to industry news site American Banker, there were discussions about that change in tax law in early negotiations over the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, but those talks didn’t advance far.
Credit unions have countered the banking industry’s criticism by saying they are serving customers in some areas that can’t get the services they need from commercial banks.
Jim Nussle, president of trade association America’s Credit Unions, said in an October editorial that bankers are hypocritical for telling Congress that credit unions are unfairly competing with them.
“According to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors’ Annual Survey of Community Banks, community banks overwhelmingly identify large banks and other community banks, not credit unions, as their primary competitors,” he wrote.
The issue reached Jacksonville when VyStar agreed in March 2021 to buy Jonesboro, Georgia-based Heritage Southeast Bancorporation Inc. The deal faced heavy opposition from bankers, and VyStar and Heritage called off the deal in June 2022 because it couldn’t get approval from regulators after waiting for 15 months.
Mike Bell, an attorney who has represented a number of credit unions in merger deals, including Community First, said regulatory agencies have been moving more quickly this year to process and approve these applications.
“The regulatory environment, I believe, has gotten better and more efficient,” said Bell, leader of the financial institutions practice at Michigan-based law firm Honigman LLP.
Community First and First Southern hope to complete their deal in the second or third quarter of 2026.
First Southern is owned by Bradenton-based holding company FSBH Corp.
Community First agreed to pay $17.14 in cash to FSBH stockholders for each of their shares, a total of about $51 million.
FSBH’s stock is listed in the OTC Pink Sheets market and is rarely traded. According to Yahoo Finance, the last trades before the buyout announcement were in September at $10 a share.
After the announcement, FSBH shares traded as high as $15.50 on Nov. 18.
FSBH plans to dissolve and distribute its remaining assets to shareholders once the buyout is completed.
Another deal facing a potential regulatory issue is Nexstar Media Group Inc.’s acquisition of Tegna Inc., but Nexstar CEO Perry Sook thinks the Federal Communications Commission will approve it.
Nexstar announced the $6.2 billion agreement Aug. 19 to buy Tegna, which owns 64 U.S. television stations, including WTLV TV-12 and WJXX TV-25 in Jacksonville.
Nexstar owns or operates 201 stations.
The regulatory issue is an FCC rule that limits one company to operating stations that reach 39% of all U.S. television households.
There is a discount applied to UHF stations because of their weaker signal, which affects Nexstar’s total reach.
However, a Nov. 19 story by business news site MarketWatch said even with the UHF discount, Nexstar’s stations would still reach 60% of households when combined with the Tegna stations.
Shareholders of Tysons, Virginia-based Tegna approved the buyout at a Nov. 18 special meeting and after the vote, Irving, Texas-based Nexstar announced the companies filed their merger application with the FCC.
In a news release, Nexstar said the application addresses reasons why the FCC should waive its ownership limits and approve the deal.
“Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA is vitally important to the future of local television and local journalism,” Sook said in the release.
“Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA will provide us with the scale necessary for local journalism to thrive amidst a media landscape that is dominated by Big Tech and the legacy media companies, enabling us to continue not only investing in high-quality journalism and local news, but in serving our local communities in the best possible way,” he said.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, appointed to the position by Trump, has expressed support for easing the ownership rules, MarketWatch said.
“We are grateful that the Trump administration and the FCC recognize that the current television ownership regulations are outdated and do not reflect the competitive media landscape as it has evolved over the past 25+ years,” Sook said.
“Like the Trump administration, we are focused on achieving deregulation, and we continue to advocate for the elimination of the antiquated constraints on local television ownership as the best solution to level the competitive playing field for all media,” he said.
The companies hope to gain the necessary approvals and complete the deal by mid-2026.
Gannett Co. changes name to USA Today Co.
Ten years ago, Tegna and newspaper publisher Gannett Co. Inc. split into separate public companies.
The broadcasting company was renamed Tegna, a partial anagram of Gannett. Now the Gannett name is gone completely.
On Nov. 18, Gannett was renamed USA Today Co. Inc., adopting the name of its national newspaper.
USA Today has more than 200 news publications across the country, including The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and the St. Augustine Record.
As part of the name change, the newspaper company changed its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange from “GCI” to “TDAY” as of Nov. 18.
While Nexstar is expecting a more favorable regulatory climate, Jacksonville-based LFTD Partners Inc. is concerned that new legislation to ban the sale of hemp products will have a “devastating impact” on the company.
LFTD makes hemp-derived and other psychoactive products through a subsidiary in Kenosha, Wisconsin, called Lifted Made.
LFTD’s third-quarter revenue rose 4% to $9.06 million, with about 47% of revenue coming from hemp-derived products, the company said in a Nov. 17 news release.
The company said in the release that the legislation signed by Trump on Nov. 12 to reopen the federal government included a provision that bans intoxicating hemp-derived consumable products nationally starting Nov. 12, 2026.
The company said that part of the legislation could be amended before next November.
“However, the Act in all likelihood will have a devastating impact on the Company and the price of its common stock,” LFTD said.
“The material adverse effects of the Act cannot be overstated.”
Besides a big drop in revenue, LFTD said the company would incur several noncash charges and inventory write-offs because the ban would affect earnings.
LFTD reported third-quarter earnings of $634,257, or 4 cents a share, reversing a loss in the third quarter of 2024.
Shoe Carnival Inc. announced Nov. 13 it is changing its corporate name to Shoe Station Group Inc. and as the footwear chain controlled by former Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver reported earnings Nov. 20, CEO Mark Worden said the data explains the change.
Shoe Carnival started converting some of its stores to the Shoe Station brand a year ago and the change has been so successful that it’s working to convert most of its stores over the next couple of years.
In the company’s conference call with analysts, Worden said Shoe Station’s sales rose 5.3% in the third quarter ended Nov. 1 while Shoe Carnival sales fell 5.2%, a 10.5 percentage point gap.
“This divergence isn’t new. We’ve been discussing it for quarters. What’s different now is the scale of the gap and our conviction that it will persist,” he said.
Shoe Station stores target a higher-income customer, while lower-income Shoe Carnival customers are facing economic pressures that are hurting sales, Worden said.
“Both models work for their customers, but consumer preferences are shifting towards best brands, premium product and quality over lowest price. That’s the Shoe Station customer,” he said.
“This isn’t a rebrand, it’s a repositioning of this entire company around what’s winning.”
Shoe Carnival’s third quarter earnings fell by 17 cents a share to 53 cents, but the company said results were affected by about 22 cents per share in costs associated with the conversion to Shoe Station.
The company expects to complete the corporate name change to Shoe Station after shareholders vote on it at the annual meeting in June 2026.
Weaver is chairman of the company and, with his wife, Delores, its largest shareholder, controlling 32.3% of the stock.