Sam Zell

How much should a company's culture reflect its chief executive, especially one who prides himself on being a blunt and innovative -- some might say abrasive -- businessman? If you're new Tribune Co. CEO Sam Zell, the answer seems to be: A lot. At least that was the feeling workers got Wednesday with the distribution of a new employee handbook, a document that's nothing like the mind-numbing, lawyered gobbledygook in most corporate manuals. Consider the opening: "Rule #1: Use your best judgment."

Tribune Co. Chairman Sam Zell on Monday backed Los Angeles Times Publisher David D. Hiller's decision to replace the newspaper's editor. "I've said loud and clear that I am returning control of our businesses to the people who run them," Zell told Tribune employees in an e-mail message. "That means David Hiller has my full support. He carries direct responsibility for the staffing and financial success of the L.A. Times." Hiller said in an interview that he notified Zell last week that James E.

Some people think Sam Zell should reread his new employee handbook. During a meeting last week with Orlando Sentinel employees, the Tribune Co. chairman ended his answer to a photographer's questions about hard news coverage by directing a two-word obscenity at her. A video of the meeting made its way to YouTube and on Monday was on the media gossip website Gawker, which described Zell as a "salty billionaire."

A mobile home park company controlled by Sam Zell, chief executive of Tribune Co., is locked in a defamation lawsuit against a San Diego County supervisor who accused the company of rent-gouging elderly tenants and lying about making repairs. The dispute began in 2002 when Supervisor Dianne Jacob made comments about the company to tenants and reporters, and to Zell in a letter. The company, Equity LifeStyle Properties Inc.

Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell has emerged as a potential bidder for Tribune Co., several people close to the matter said Tuesday. Zell, whose Equity Office Properties Trust is the target of one of the biggest bidding wars in Wall Street history, has approached the Chicago-based media company that owns the Los Angeles Times with a complicated proposal that may include taking an equity stake while adding debt to fund a large dividend for shareholders, these people said.

He's about 5 feet 5 and has a bald dome and a beard like an Amish farmer. He revels in the nickname he gave himself years ago: "the Grave Dancer." At 65, Chicagoan Samuel Zell is still apt to arrive at a cocktail party by motorcycle and walk in wearing bluejeans and a Chicago Bears jersey. He thinks like an economist but can talk like a dockworker. He has vacation homes on the beach in Malibu and on the slopes in Sun Valley, Idaho, where people say he skis like a maniac.

Sam Zell, a Chicago real estate magnate who made a fortune by turning around distressed properties, has emerged as a strong contender to buy the company that owns the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, according to people familiar with ongoing negotiations. Zell's bid for Tribune Co.

What kind of a news baron would Sam Zell make? With Tribune Co. seriously considering the Chicago real estate billionaire's buyout offer, it's no idle question. Besides amassing the nation's largest collection of office buildings in his Equity Office Properties Trust -- which was sold last month to Blackstone Group for $23 billion -- Zell, 65, has a long history with smokestack industries, having invested in makers of bicycles, barges, mattresses and airplane rivets.

Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell has become the leading suitor for Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and KTLA Channel 5, with an $8-billion bid for a company buffeted by new-media challengers, a person familiar with the talks said. Investment bankers are working to strike a deal, but many details remain to be ironed out. The company may not be able to meet its self-imposed deadline to conclude deliberations by the end of the month, the person said.

Real estate mogul Sam Zell's jump to the head of the pack in the auction for Tribune Co. has led Los Angeles billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad to protest that their earlier offer was given short shrift. The partners said in a letter to Tribune over the weekend that they should have been given access to the same information that helped Zell draft an offer that relied on forming a new employee stock ownership plan in an attempt to acquire the media company in a tax-efficient manner.