CHICAGO – Media giant Tribune Co. (NYSE: TRB), which went public in 1983, is planning to go private again by selling itself for $8.2 billion to company employees and billionaire real estate investor Sam Zell, Bloomberg News reports. The Chandler family, the company’s largest shareholder, has agreed to approve the deal, Tribune said.
Tribune owns nine newspapers – including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times – plus 23 television stations and the Chicago Cubs. The company will take on $8.4 billion in debt to fund the buyout, Bloomberg said. To pay down that debt, Zell said he will sell the Major League Baseball team.
Zell, 65, who will become the company chairman, also will invest $315 million of his own money, gaining a warrant to buy 40 percent of the Tribune. An employee stock ownership plan will be created that will own all the shares, the Tribune said.
The deal, which includes a $25 million breakup fee, is valued at $34 per share, 6 percent above the stock’s close last week. Tribune shares had lost nearly 30 percent of their value in the two years before the company put itself up for sale in September.
Tribune shares rose on the news in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, to $32.88, up 77 cents or 2.4 percent, at 1:37 p.m.
