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Update: Tribune Sells To Zell! It is done! Purchase price: $8.2 billion. Update here.
Following last week's last-minute dollar-per-share outbidding by Ron Burkle and Eli Broad, the Tribune company has agreed to go with Sam Zell after inviting him to follow suit and up his bid, which he did late last night. Zell's offer was seen as preferable to Broad and Burkle's because it was "further along and could be finished more quickly" and the board would "prefer to sell the company to a Chicagoan...rather than to people with ties to Los Angeles, where disputes between Tribune...and The Los Angeles Times, have been played out on the public stage." Zell apparently met with the board late last night, after being given a twelve hour deadline, to make a new offer, and his winning bid of $8.2 billion was announced this morning. Meanwhile, shares are up today. It's over! It's really over! The Tribune Co. is actually sold! Earlier today we compared this to how Kelly strung along Brandon and Dylan on 90210 — we're still sort of surprised that the Trib Co. didn't flounce off and say "I choose me." Instead they chose Zell. Now of course, a whole new host of issues are raised — dude is not a newspaperman, he's a profit man, which makes the LAT nervous. So — expect more drama to come.
Tribune Accepts Real Estate Magnate's Bid [NYT]
Burkle and Broad's 11th-hour Effort Falls Short [Bloomberg]
Zell wins Tribune auction; Cubs to be sold [Chicago Trib]
Backstory: Tribune Bid + Burkle's Press Aspirations [NPR]
