Tribune Willing To Consider Bids For Individual Assets; Offers For Whole Disappointing: Report

Resistant until now to efforts to cherry pick properties, the Tribune is now ready to hear bids for inididual assets, according to the NYT. That would open the field to various investor groups interested in the LA Times, The Baltimore Sun and other properties. The shift follows a “disappointingly low” first round of bids for the whole from at least four PE firms. Tribune reps tell the Times they want a “market check” on certain assets. Going private is and selling off some core assets is still an option.
From the Times: “One person involved cautioned that at this stage of such auctions, companies sometimes say they are disappointed with early bids in order to increase them. Another said that the bids were low for a reason. ‘These are difficult businesses in troubled times and they are all underperforming.'”

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