Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
Tribune Publishing directors said Friday shareholders approved Alden Global Capital’s offer to buy the company, heralding a new and uneasy era at the Chicago-based media company and turning aside pleas from its journalists and others who made opposition to the sale into a fight for the soul of journalism.
But the outcome was immediately cast into doubt by an announcement from the company’s second-largest shareholder, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.
The company announced the result at a special board meeting without giving vote totals. Alden’s $17.25-a-share acquisition will take the 174-year-old company private.
Alden is acquiring the roughly two-thirds of the company that it doesn’t already own. Tribune Publishing owns the Chicago Tribune and eight other large dailies.
Hedge fund Alden Global Capital, known for making deep newsroom cuts, won approval to acquire Tribune Publishing, which includes the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and New York Daily News.
Tribune Publishing shareholders voted Friday to approve hedge fund Alden Global Capital’s $633 million purchase of the Chicago-based newspaper chain that owns The Baltimore Sun.
Tribune shareholders approve hedge fund Alden s bid
By Tali Arbel
Shareholders of Tribune Publishing, one of the country’s largest newspaper chains, approved a $630 million takeover bid by hedge fund Alden Global Capital on Friday, the company said in a brief statement. Alden, which already owned nearly one-third of Tribune, stands to take full control of the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other Tribune papers.
Through its Digital First Media chain, Alden owns the Boston Herald, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News.
Tribune offered little additional detail beyond the fact that it expects the deal to close on May 25. In a statement, Alden said the move reaffirms our commitment to the newspaper industry and its focus on retooling publications so they can operate sustainably over the long term.
Alden Global Capital, which already owned one-third of Tribune, now takes full control of the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other Tribune papers in a deal worth roughly $630 million. Through its Digital First Media chain, Alden also owns the Boston Herald, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News. The deal had drawn opposition from many of the company’s journalists at papers in an unusual spate of employee activism.