Following a handful of unimpressive bids to sell the company as a whole, Tribune Co. is now soliciting offers to sell off individual properties, including the
Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV
Channel 5 and the Chicago Cubs. A Friday deadline for non-binding preliminary offers resulted in bids valued at about the company's current share price, say sources familiar with the process.
That led Tribune's bankers to call people who may want to buy specific assets. In Los Angeles, David Geffen, former home builder Eli Broad and former supermarket magnate Ron Burkle have expressed
interest in buying the newspaper.
Local groups have also made noise about acquiring other Tribune papers, such as the
Baltimore Sun, the
Hartford Courant and
Newsday.
The company initially put off buyers of individual assets, looking for offers for Tribune as a whole. But it seems no one bit. "No one is going to be happy with this news. It's not good for Tribune.
It's not good for the shareholders," says a businessman interested in buying one of the Tribune papers.
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at Los Angeles Times »