Tribune Co

The Chandler family fired its first shot last summer. The onetime owner of the Los Angeles Times lashed out at Tribune Co.'s plan to take on debt to buy back $2 billion of its stock and blamed the Chicago company's "disastrous" decision-making for its sinking stock price. Those protests forced Tribune into play. But seven months later, the family that is Tribune's largest shareholder is still waiting for satisfaction.

The 4-month-old auction of Tribune Co. appeared to be limping toward today's bidding deadline with several potential buyers on the sidelines and the California family that promoted a sale or breakup unsure whether to respond with an offer. The Chandler family, the previous owner of the Los Angeles Times, is the largest single shareholder of Tribune, the Chicago-based company that owns The Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Cubs baseball team and various other media properties.

The Chandler family, which owned the Los Angeles Times for more than a century, and a partnership of local billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle made competing offers Wednesday for Chicago-based media giant Tribune Co. After a four-month auction process, the bids pit two powerful Southern California interests in a battle for the company that owns The Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Tribune Co.'s senior executives and key employees could be in for a handsome payday if they lose their jobs in a sale of the company that owns the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5 and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, documents show. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday by the Chandler family trusts, which is among the bidders for the Chicago-based media company, "change of control payments" to Tribune executives could total $269 million.

An offer for Tribune Co. by two Los Angeles billionaires would not require significant cuts at the company's newspapers, contrary to initial criticism of the debt-heavy proposal, people close to the transaction said Thursday. The bid by Eli Broad and Ron Burkle was one of two competing bids that emerged Wednesday for the Chicago-based company, just hours before a bidding deadline.

IN Chicago today, the directors of the Tribune Co. will be deliberating the fate of this newspaper and 10 others across the country. Tribune's board of directors will weigh a proposal from billionaire Los Angeles businessmen Ron Burkle and Eli Broad to acquire the entire company; one from the Chandler family trusts to break the company up but leave the Chandlers in control of the newspapers; and one from the private Carlyle Group to buy just the company's television stations.

After months of planning, two of Southern California's wealthiest men flew to Chicago on Saturday and made their case for buying a large and potentially controlling stake in Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Cubs and other newspapers and TV stations.

The bid submitted for Tribune Co. by billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle expires this afternoon, but people familiar with the auction say they expect the Chicago-based media company to withhold a response for now while encouraging the pair to stay involved. "I don't think you're likely to see the board say 'no' to anybody at this point," said a financial professional who had followed the process closely but asked not to be identified because the bidding was confidential.

Tribune Co.'s largest shareholder, Chandler Trusts, has extended the deadline on an offer for the media conglomerate that had been set to expire Wednesday, a person close to the family said. The move gives the company's board of directors more time to consider the highest-valued bid for its assets to date during a four-month review process. The Chandlers, whose complaints last year about Tribune's sagging stock price prompted the company to solicit outside proposals, made an estimated $7.

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.