Tribune Publishing Co., the parent of the Hartford Courant and several other U.S. daily newspapers, will move forward with an acquisition deal with hedge fund Alden Global Capital after a billionaire investor pulled out of a competing offer.
The company announced Monday morning Tribune Co. has cut off communications with a group of prospective buyers that includes Maryland hotel executive Stewart Bainum Jr. and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, after Wyss pulled out of the deal.Â
Bainum said in a Saturday letter to Tribune’s board of directors that Wyss is “no longer interested in participating in a potential acquisition of Tribune” for the $18.50 per share Bainum and Wyss — under the auspices of Newslight LLC — offered earlier this month. The offer was better than Alden’s $17.25 per share offer that would amount to about $630 million.
The Maryland hotelier said he’s still pursuing the deal to buy Tribune Publishing for $18.50 per share, but Tribune Co. said Monday that its financial advisors say there’s no reasonable expectation that further talks with Newslight will result in a deal superior to Alden’s offer.
“Tribune is no longer permitted to engage in discussions and negotiations with, or provide diligence information to, Newslight,” Tribune Co.’s Monday statement said. “Accordingly [Tribune Co.] has terminated such discussions and negotiations with, and access to diligence information for, Newslight and its principals.”
Terminating talks with Bainum virtually guarantees Tribune Co. will be sold to Alden, a hedge fund that has acquired some 200 publications (including more than 100 daily newspapers), many of which it shrunk in size through layoffs. The Denver Post, which Alden owns, laid off 13 employees — including four in the newsroom — last year, according to Poynter, and The Boston Herald laid off about a half-dozen last year after Alden acquired it.
Bainum, chairman of Choice Hotels International, initially planned to acquire only the Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun through a nonprofit entity he controls, the Sunlight for All Institute. After negotiations involving that deal stalled, however, Bainum made an offer for all of the Tribune publications.
Bainum’s representatives have alluded to moving the company and its publications toward a not-for-profit model, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Wyss, the founder and former president of medical device manufacturing company Synthes USA, joined Bainum’s bid last month.
In addition to the Hartford Courant and The Baltimore Sun, Tribune Publishing also owns the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Florida’s Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel, Virginia’s Daily Press and Virginian-Pilot, and The Morning Call of eastern Pennsylvania.
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