Report: Tribune Pondering $8 Billion Takeover Bid

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 28, 2007 - 12:31pm.

Baltimore - Tribune, the Chicago-based media company that owns a variety of newspapers and TV stations, could be sold by the end of the week, Bloomberg News reported.

Real estate billionaire Sam Zell has offered $8 billion for the company, which put itself on the auction block last fall, and has since received inquiries from Gannett, several private equity firms and a pair of Los Angeles billionaires.

All told, Tribune owns 11 daily newspapers and 25 TV stations, as well as the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Bloomberg said that Zell's offer primarily is competing with the company's plan to reorganize.

If successful in his bid, Zell said earlier this month that he plans to keep the company's TV and newspapers assets intact.

http://www.tribune.com