Buyout

The board of directors of bankrupt Tribune Co. formed a special committee to oversee the media company's contentious reorganization process and to manage any legal claims arising from its 2007 leveraged buyout. Sources said the step is an effort to remove conflicts of interest from the debtor's decision-making process since some Tribune board members and officers may be the target of buyout-related claims. In a court filing Tuesday, the Chicago media company said four directors would sit on the committee.

Two months after former Best Buy Co. Chairman Richard Schulze exited the board amid scandal, he offered to buy the struggling electronics giant for as much as $8.84 billion, a deal that would make it the largest buyout ever of a U.S. retailer. But the offer of $24 to $26 a share was met with considerable skepticism Monday among analysts and investors, who nudged the stock price up $2.35, or 13.3%, to $19.99 but nowhere close to the proposed takeover offer price. Standard & Poor's cut Best Buy's credit rating to junk since such a buyout would add debt to its books.

Jim Buchanan winced as he explained why Mitt Romney's business career made him uneasy. "I think he [as president] would be more, basically, out for himself — and not for us," said Buchanan, a regional manager here for Zaxby's fast-food chicken. Buchanan, who was filling a prescription at Wal-Mart, suspects there is some truth to TV ads and news reports about South Carolina job losses stemming from buyout deals that spawned millions of dollars in fees for Bain Capital, an investment firm once led by Romney.

In a strange twist even by the standards of the tangled Tribune Co. bankruptcy, billionaire Sam Zell filed two suits against the company's former shareholders seeking to claw back proceeds from the failed leveraged buyout he led in 2007. The suits, filed in Cook County Circuit Court by Zell affiliate EGI-TRB, piggyback on allegations by Tribune creditors that the debt-laden $8.2-billion buyout was a fraudulent conveyance, meaning it left the owner of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA Channel 5, Chicago Tribune and other media assets insolvent from the start.

Lawyers and expert witnesses at the confirmation hearings in Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy case began this week to address the complex question of when the Chicago-based media company became insolvent and who should have known about it. But amid often-numbing testimony about discount rates and cash-flow tax values, strategies among the two groups of warring creditors in the case are becoming clearer as they each try to persuade U.S. Bankruptcy Judge...

Harrah's Entertainment Inc. said its $17.1-billion sale to Apollo Management and TPG Inc. was completed, consummating the largest casino buyout in history more than a year after the deal was struck. The buyout firms agreed in December 2006 to acquire Harrah's for $90 a share.

The Dodgers got busy real quickly after the World Series. The day after the Giants swept the Tigers, the Dodgers declined their options on outfielder Juan Rivera, reliever Todd Coffey and catcher Matt Treanor. Declining the options cost the Dodgers almost $1 million, but will take $7.45 million in 2013 salary off the books. Rivera was scheduled to make $4 million next season, but instead the Dodgers will pay him a $500,000 buyout. Rivera hit .244 with nine homers and 44 RBI in 312 at-bats, with .286 on-base and .375 slugging percentages.

The Lakers have been linked to Raja Bell since before he signed with the Utah Jazz in 2010.  Kobe Bryant tried to recruit Bell for the Lakers but the Jazz offered him a lucrative contract. Bell's relationship with Utah soured after two seasons. Now, in the final year of his deal, Bell has spent the entire season away from the team after both sides agreed to part ways. He's still under contract with the Jazz but has been inactive. Jazz Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin O'Connor spoke on 1280-AM "The Zone" about Bell on Monday.

Thomas Tull is taking control of Legendary Pictures. The chairman of the film financing and production company has quietly led a buyout of its original investors in order to more directly steer an expansion into video games, digital media and other businesses. Under the deal that closed last week, Tull brought on two new investors to acquire nearly all the stake held by investors who backed the company's founding in 2004, according to several people familiar with the situation.

CNW OKs Buyout Offer: CNW Corp.'s board approved a $1.6-billion buyout offer from a group that includes company management, railroad company Union Pacific Corp. and other investors, prompting hostile suitor Japonica Partners to withdraw its own offer. The buyout group formed by investment banker Blackstone Group, which will hold a controlling interest in the railroad company, agreed to pay $45.50 cash per common share in cash and $4.50 per share of preferred stock. CNW stock jumped 75 cents to close at $47.50 a share in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.