Freedom Communications

Shareholders who want to sell their Freedom Communications Inc. stock, along with at least one potential bidder, are complaining of being left in the dark as the family-owned company known for fractious battles slowly assesses offers that would allow dissidents to exit. "We're having conversations with them but the sense is that it's going nowhere," said a source close to one of the bidders, calling the process frustrating. "It seems like total indecision at Freedom's end."

The Federal Communications Commission has given preliminary approval to Freedom Communications Inc.'s plan to buy out disgruntled members of the founding Hoiles family, and antitrust authorities won't challenge the deal, the Irvine company said. Regulatory clearance is the last major obstacle to the reorganization of Freedom, which owns the Orange County Register and 27 other daily newspapers, as well as 37 weekly publications and eight television stations.

Final bids were due today for all or part of Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., the nation's 12th-largest newspaper company and publisher of the Orange County Register. The auction, which closes at 5 p.m., culminates more than a year of maneuvering over a possible sale by factions of a famously fractious family descended from Raymond C. "R.C." Hoiles, who bought the Register for $750,000 in 1935 and turned it into a megaphone for his Libertarian philosophy.

The chief executive of Freedom Communications Inc., the Irvine-based media company that owns the Orange County Register, dismissed speculation Wednesday that the company may be sold under pressure from members of the Hoiles family that owns it. But CEO Samuel C. Wolgemuth did confirm that the company was seeking ways to provide liquidity to the 81 family members whose wealth is tied up in Freedom stock, calling it a "critical issue" for any family-owned business.

The Orange County Register and six other daily newspapers have been sold to a Boston investment group in what is expected to be the final sale of properties owned by Freedom Communications Holdings Inc. in Irvine. Terms of the sale to the investment group 2100 Trust were not disclosed. The group is headed by Aaron Kushner, a Stanford University graduate who formerly headed a greeting card company. His investment group sought unsuccessfully to buy the Boston Globe last year. "We believe that newspapers are essential to the fabric of our lives and are excited to own and grow these unique institutions," Kushner, 39, said in a statement.

Chapman University in Orange said Monday it has received a $500,000 grant from Freedom Communications Inc. in Irvine to establish a new business school program, to be titled the Orientation Lectureship. The new undergraduate program begins next fall.

Freedom Acquisition: Freedom Communications Inc. said it has acquired U.S./Latin Trade, a magazine on commerce in the Americas. The Miami-based magazine has a monthly circulation of 40,500, Freedom said. "The acquisition . . . fits well with a developing focus on international business publishing," said James N. Rosse, president and chief executive of Freedom. The Irvine-based publisher produces 26 daily and 30 weekly newspapers, including the Orange County Register.

Playboy Enterprises Inc. said it had hired Freedom Communications Inc. Chief Executive Scott N. Flanders to lead the company. Flanders' selection as CEO ends a five-month search for a new leader at the struggling Chicago company after Christie Hefner, daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, resigned in January. Jerome Kern has been serving as interim CEO. Flanders, 52, helped expand online revenue and streamline operations at Freedom, owner of the Orange County Register.