Divestment

Tribune Co. has rejected a plan by the state of Illinois to buy Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, and instead will work on selling the baseball team together with the historic ballpark. Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney did not shut the door on a new agreement with the state, but at the same time the media company, which also owns the Los Angeles Times, will begin exploring potential buyer interest in the Cubs, Wrigley and Tribune's stake in Comcast SportsNet. Analysts have said the assets could fetch more than $1 billion.

The sale of BCE Inc., parent of telecommunications company Bell Canada, hit a snag Wednesday when an appeals court sided with BCE bondholders who wanted to stop the $35.1-billion takeover by a group led by one of Canada's largest pension funds. The Quebec Court of Appeal reversed a lower court decision to allow BCE's takeover by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan in what would be the largest leveraged buyout in Canadian history. The bondholders had tried to block the deal, saying it would load Canada's largest telecom company with debt and make their bonds a much riskier investment.

Pacific Energy Resources agreed to sell its onshore California producing assets for $135 million, using the proceeds to reduce debt. The sale includes interests in the Los Angeles Basin and the San Joaquin Basin, the Long Beach oil company said. The buyer's name wasn't disclosed.

Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday it would formally split off its cable TV business, giving the media conglomerate a $9.25-billion windfall and allowing it to focus on cable network, entertainment and publishing operations. The separation of Time Warner Cable Inc. would get Time Warner out of the media distribution business altogether, something investors had been clamoring for.

The California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, may sell part of its $2 billion in residential land holdings after the investments lost 31% last year amid falling home prices and forecasts of further declines. Sacramento-based CalPERS hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to review seven land deals that it made with joint-venture partners and real estate advisors, fund spokeswoman Pat Macht said.

Petty Enterprises, the venerable NASCAR team led by Richard Petty, sold control of the family business Wednesday to investment firm Boston Ventures. Once one of stock car racing's most powerful teams with "The King" himself at the wheel, Petty Enterprises fell into mediocrity during the last two decades and hasn't won a race since 1999. "The time has come for Petty Enterprises to take the steps necessary to get back to victory lane," Petty, 70, said in a statement.

With divorce between DreamWorks SKG and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures a given, the only issue now is who gets custody of the children. Like custody battles anywhere, this one could get nasty. In the coming weeks, DreamWorks will begin the complicated business of dissolving their bitter 2 1/2 -year union, leaving in limbo hundreds of movie projects, employees, talent and producers who work for the company.

The owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars said Thursday that contrary to a newspaper report his NFL team is not for sale or bound for Los Angeles. "I'm not selling the Jaguars," Wayne Weaver said in an interview. "The team is not moving to L.A. I don't know how I can say that any more clearly than that." The Philadelphia Daily News, citing anonymous sources, reported Wednesday that Weaver was in negotiations with New Jersey billionaire C. Dean Metropoulos to sell the franchise. The Jaguars have long struggled to sell tickets and generate lucrative sponsorships in the Jacksonville area, fueling speculation the team could be sold to a group angling to bring them to Southern California.

Merrill Lynch & Co., the nation's third-largest securities firm, dropped efforts to sell a stake in BlackRock Inc. and struck a deal instead to sell its 20% share of Bloomberg LP, according to people familiar with the decision. Merrill, poised to report a second-quarter loss today, stood to gain about $2 billion on its 49.8% stake in BlackRock, the nation's largest publicly traded fund manager, based on its current market value. BlackRock stock has fallen 17.

Pressed by newspaper industry woes and plummeting real estate advertising, the parent company of the San Diego Union-Tribune said Thursday that it may put itself up for sale. Copley Press Inc., which also owns the biweekly Borrego Sun in Borrego Springs, Calif., said it hired New York's Evercore Partners to explore possible deals, including a sale. "The last couple of years have been a difficult period for the newspaper industry, especially those in a real estate-dependent market like San Diego," said Harold W. Fuson, executive vice president of the La Jolla company.