Is Sam Zell pulling a fast one on taxpayers with his sale of the Chicago Cubs? It seems like he might according to the Washington Post's Allen Sloan. And as The Reader's Whet Moser points out, this is not exactly the first time Zell has pulled some shady shenanigans in his dealings with the Tribune Company.
It looks like Sam Zell's fun-filled reign over the Tribune Company might soon be at an end according to a report from Tribune rival the Sun-Times. According to their story:
The Tribune Company may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in regards to the Chicago Cubs. But it's not as bad as it seems; rather, it's a move that may help the pending sale of the team go a little smoother. According to Bloomberg:
When we were younger, our friend told us about a car his older brother was selling for the low price of $900. Sure, it looked a little ragged, what with the rust holes and the mismatched door, but we were assured that at its heart the car was solid, and could be revived back to its shiny, reliable former self with just a little bit of elbow grease. Six months later, after being stalled on the side of the road for the third time, we wound up giving it away to that cancer foundation with the annoying jingle. Well, Sam Zell is feeling the same way right now, except his error in judgment contained seven more zeros. In an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday, Zell said that he now thinks that his acquisition of the Chicago Tribune was a "mistake" and that he "was too optimistic in terms of the newspaper's ability to preserve its position." Huh, a business guy with zero experience in the newspaper industry was wrong about the direction said industry was heading -- imagine that.
Coinciding with the start of 2007 baseball season began, Sam Zell purchased the Tribune Co. and announced that he was putting the Cubs up for sale to help pay down the company's debt. Two full seasons later, the team remains part of his now bankrupt media empire. But this seemingly endless process of determining the winning bidder may be over soon. From an initial pool of at least 10 interested parties, the Cubs have asked three bidders to polish up their bids as the team decides which to accept. The three finalists are: Tom Ricketts, Marc Utay and Hersch Klaff.
What a week for Sam Zell. First, his company filed for bankruptcy on Monday. Then on Tuesday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested, partly for trying to extort the editorial board of the Zell-owned Chicago Tribune. And it's that last item that has the FBI curious to talk to Zell about what he knew and what he did in response to Blago's threats and attempts to have editor John McCormick fired in exchange for helping along the sale of Wrigley Field. While Zell said in a television interview he was contacted by the FBI, he denied a request by his own Chicago Tribune for an interview. The Tribune Company sticks by their recent assertion that their behavior has been "appropriate at all times."
Image taken outside the Governor's Mansion in Springfield by Anonymous, printed with owner's permission via L. Stolpman
After a whirlwind of speculation in the past 24 hours, the Tribune Company has officially filed for bankruptcy protection today, the same day it faces a deadline for $70 million in unsecured debt it's had since before Sam Zell bought the company. The announcement is not a big surprise after yesterday's announcement that the company had hired advisers Lazard Ltd and law firm Sidley Austin to explore its options. The sale of the Cubs (as well as Wrigley Field and a stake in Comcast SportsNet) was expected to be completed earlier this year and might have helped the company stave off such a filing.
Severe reductions in advertising this year because of the recession have put pressure on the Chicago-based company. Most of its debt comes from the complex transaction in which the company was taken private by real estate mogul Sam Zell last year.Continue reading "Tribune Company Files For Bankruptcy Protection"
Today the Wall Street Journal reported that the Tribune Company is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and could file as early as this week. The company has hired Lazard Ltd. for financial and and legal counsel to steer them through the potential claim. Crain's has a bit more on the story, and cites a Tribune spokesman as saying the company does not comment on rumor and speculation.
In a development that won't help his already long-shot bid to buy the Cubs, Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban has been charged with insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Wall Street Journal explains it all thusly:
Mr. Cuban sold his entire 6% ownership stake on June 28, 2004, after learning that Mamma.com was raising money through a private investment in a public entity, or PIPE. The next day, on June 29, the company announced the PIPE financing and shares of the company dropped by more than 10%. By selling his stake, the SEC alleges, Mr. Cuban avoided more than $750,000 in losses.Ah. The SEC has its full statement available here. No word yet from Cuban's camp, though this probably makes this interesting look at Cuban and the Cubs moot.
As the Cubs close in on acquiring Padres ace Jake Peavy, the Tribune Company has informed bidders their next round of proposals are due by Thanksgiving Day. And this time, there's an added twist: prove that, in this current economic clusterfuck, you can actually pay for the team. It seems the Trib, like everyone, is in dire financial straits.
On Monday, Tribune reported a net loss of $121.6 million across its operations for the third quarter, compared with a profit of $152.8 million for the same period a year ago. Revenue declined 10.5 percent to $1.04 billion.Continue reading "Tribune Sets Thanksgiving Deadline for Next Round of Cubs Bids; Cuban Out?"
At least, if you take what he says as gospel truth. With all the financial stories swirling around our heads these days, it's hard to know what's for real and what's just blithering...but in this case, it is Sam Zell, master real estate investor billionaire and not Sam Zell, Tribune Company executive. Crain's has the details:
As more and more ink-stained wretches flee the Tribune Tower like rats from the proverbial sinking ship, the Sun-Times tells us that the building itself might be up for grabs. And if you've ever gazed up at the Tower and thought of its architectural marvelousness (and consider what might have been!), maybe you'd be interested in dropping the estimated $250 million that Sam Zell might charge for it.
Initial bids on the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field were due Friday and word is slowly getting out now about who seems to have made the cut. Among those who didn't make the cut were Chicago Wolves owner Don Levin and the group led by Madison Dearborn Chairman John Canning. Canning's group was considered the odds-on favorite to win the bidding, in part due to Canning being a part-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and a friend of Major League Baseball Asshat Commissioner Bud Selig. Up to five of the MLB-approved bidders on the Cubs were invited by the Tribune Co. to continue in the process. All of the approved bids topped $1 billion according to media reports. Only three separate (and cheaper) bids on Wrigley Field alone were allowed to the second round.
Hard times abound for many print media publication and The Chicago Tribune is the latest victim. Following up on Tribune Co. chairman and CEO Sam Zell's warning from earlier this year of more layoffs, the Trib announced today it plans to eliminate 80 positions in its newsroom. It's the fourth round of layoffs since 2005. At that time, the newsroom had 670 positions; this round of cuts will leave it around 500. Of the 80 positions being cut, roughly a dozen remain unfilled so the number of actual newsroom workers losing their jobs will be in the mid-50s. More jobs will be cut during this current round, but those are unknown at this time. In addition to the job cuts, the Trib will also reduce the pages it produces by 13 to 14 percent. A similar reduction in jobs and pages was announced last week at The Los Angeles Times, another Tribune Co. paper.
Is the Tribune company selling off the Trib Tower? Maybe in parts. Sam Zell, you crazy bastard!
Sam Zell and Randy Michaels sent out an e-mail today detailing their ideas for the "changing business model for publishing." By September, Trib-company newspapers will be a lot smaller, and they'll all have a new "customer-centric" design and new websites. All the TV station websites will look like this.
Sam Zell wants Jay Leno to be on WGN America, he said at a meeting yesterday. In Portland with Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels, Zell said he's interested in having Leno on the newly revamped superstation and on the Tribune's stations when the host's contract is up with NBC in 2009.
Natalie, we heard you don't like late Extra, Extras. This one's for you.
Stuart Levine says Barack Obama was at Tony Rezko's party for shady investor Nadhmi Auchi. [Trib]
Landmarks Illinois, "the state’s leading voice for historic preservation," released the 2008 edition of their Endangered Landmarks list today and, keeping with the same counting rules as the Big 10, the Top 10 list actually features 11 buildings. The last-second, list-expanding addition? Wrigley Field. The addition was made in response to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority's interest in purchasing, and subsequently renovating, the stadium. In total, the city of Chicago has four buildings on the list: the Chicago Daily News Building (400-442 W. Madison St.), the Germania Club & Village Theatre (1536-1550 N. Clark St.), the Michigan Avenue Streetwall (Michigan Avenue, from Randolph St. to 11th St.), and the aforementioned Home of the Cubs (1060 W. Addison St.). In case you're counting, that's two buildings on the list owned by the omnipresent Sam Zell: the Chicago Daily News Building and Wrigley.
OK, keep it in your pants, Sun-Times and Tribune. The moronic Sam Zell song contest that the S-T has been hyping like the second coming finally concluded today. And a Tribune intern won, although the S-T folk didn't realize that when they picked her song. The Sun-Times says it's been "punk'd," which isn't really what punk'd means, and the Trib published its own gleeful story all about how they're the bestest ever, and how everyone else is a stupidface. Fight!
While we here in the Chicagoist offices have taken exception to the possible re-naming of Wrigley Field, we have a much bigger issue with the possible new ownership of the park. From the get-go, we have opposed the sale of Wrigley to the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the state agency that owns and runs U.S. Cellular Field.
OK, some of you have already had enough of all the Wrigley Field naming rights talk. We understand. But new details give some answers as to how the naming rights might be applied and who some of the bidders might actually be.
"To be honest, the architects really drive this, because they talk about lead time on ordering steel, etc., and how this would all work," Kenney said.Continue reading "Cubs May Play 3 Months at The Cell"
ATA is going to stop flying out of Midway. Nooooo. [Trib]
So here we were, doing a little poking around some Chicago radio websites on a Saturday afternoon. One link leads to another, and all of a sudden we're on Chicago Tonight correspondent Rich Samuel's site, which we've discovered is a treasure trove of old Chicago media pictures, airchecks and video.
Maybe he hasn't made Keith Olbermann's nightly list yet, but Sam Zell is quickly cementing his place among the "Worst People in Chicago" as he continues to antagonize Chicagoans since his takeover of the Tribune Co.
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
Cubs Combat Casino
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County Sales Tax Rollback Vetoed - Here We Go Again
The Return of The Chicagoist Reader Meet-Up
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