Shares of Tribune Media Co. (NYSE: TRCO) jumped more than 9% on Monday as news broke that the TV media conglomerate was considering strategic alternatives in order to boost its share price. In a tone that sounded like throwing up hands, company Chairman Bruce Karsch expressed his frustration that the value of Tribune’s assets was simply not being reflected in its share price and nobody knows what to do about it. Though near double-digit spikes are generally a good sign for any company, sometimes they are actually negative. It looks that way in the case of Tribune.

If investors are acting positively to the announcement of possible selling off of decently profitable assets, it means that they don’t think much of those assets’ future performance value and that they think it’s a good thing they’re being gotten rid of. Tribune’s spike higher then is the market’s way of saying that its media assets are degrading. Since the August 2014 spin-off of Tribune Publishing Co. (NYSE: TPUB), that is the direction that both stocks have been going as cord-cutting and print media degradation have taken their toll on both entities.

So what happens now? While an acquisition by a competitor like Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA) or Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) is certainly possible from a financial perspective at least, it seems unlikely due to antitrust issues. Not that such government roadblocks couldn’t eventually be overcome through sweet-talk, favors or selling off more assets, the real issue is whether trying to overcome those  issues by appeasing regulators is really worth the time and effort for either Disney or Fox in the case of Tribune. It doesn’t look like it by the numbers, so it probably won’t happen.

The next possibility is that the company is taken private by a group of hedge funds. That doesn’t look likely either, as the largest single shareholder, Oaktree Capital Management, owns only 15% of the company. Such a deal would be too complicated as too many equity firms would be involved.

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