Yucaipa Cos

The union working with Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle to buy 12 newspapers from McClatchy Co. is asking elected officials to lobby the Sacramento company on behalf of labor's effort to acquire the publications. Burkle's Yucaipa Cos., working with the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, submitted a bid Tuesday on the papers McClatchy is selling as part of its acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc.

Supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle's investment firm, Yucaipa Cos., said Friday that it would join Bimbo Bakeries USA and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in an effort to buy troubled Interstate Bakeries Corp. The Kansas City, Mo.-based maker of Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread, which filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2004, has lined up about $400 million in financing from specialty lender Silver Point Finance when it emerges from bankruptcy.

Supermarket king Ron Burkle is expanding from carrots to carats. His Los Angeles investment firm, Yucaipa Cos., said Tuesday that it was acquiring Garrard, the British supplier of jewels to the royal family and the merely rich for 271 years. Privately held Yucaipa is paying almost $30 million for the luxury goods company.

In the increasingly contentious proxy fight between billionaire investor Ron Burkle and bookstore giant Barnes & Noble Inc., each side sent a letter to company shareholders Monday that urged them to vote against the other side. Burkle's Los Angeles-based investment firm Yucaipa Cos. and the bookstore chain have been verbally attacking each other for months after Burkle began rapidly buying up shares of Barnes & Noble late last year. Burkle now owns about 19% of the bookseller's stock.

An Oregon retail giant will acquire the Utah-based Smith's Food & Drug Centers in a merger that is expected to boost the fortunes of Yucaipa Cos., the Los Angeles investment firm that controls Ralphs Grocery Co. Yucaipa owns a minority stake in Smith's, and the merger was engineered by Ron Burkle, who is both head of the investment firm and chief executive of Smith's. Under the deal announced Monday, the Portland-based Fred Meyer Inc. will buy Smith's for $720 million in stock.

The investment firm controlled by Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle is planning to bid for all 12 of the Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers that were put on the auction block last week after the San Jose-based chain agreed to be acquired by McClatchy Co. Robert Hall, hired by Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. to advise on the bid, said Wednesday that the firm planned to give formal notice of its intention to bid for the papers, which include the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, the St. Paul (Minn.

Yucaipa Cos. and Ralphs Grocery Co. have reached agreements with bondholders that remove the last remaining obstacle for completing the largest supermarket merger in California history, Yucaipa executives said Thursday. Yucaipa--which owns the Alpha Beta, Boys, Viva and Food 4 Less chains--is to acquire Ralphs under the terms of a $1.5-billion deal negotiated last September.

The founder of the company that spawned MySpace said Monday that he would be willing to work with an investment firm recruited by Dow Jones & Co. staffers to fashion a joint bid for the financial news empire. Brad Greenspan, who made a reported $47 million when his EUniverse was sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., said in an interview that he would be happy to join forces with Yucaipa Cos.

Financier and supermarket mogul Ron Burkle has expressed interest in becoming a partner in the troubled Playa Vista real estate project where DreamWorks SKG wants to build a studio, according to people close to the project. Burkle's interest is the latest twist in the saga of the much-hyped, $8-billion mixed-use project that each day teeters closer to unraveling altogether.

McClatchy Co.'s planned sale of a dozen Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers drew bids from at least three potential buyers Tuesday -- including an offer for all 12 from Los Angeles investment firm Yucaipa Cos. Yucaipa, controlled by billionaire Ron Burkle, is allied with the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, the union that represents employees at eight of the papers. Robert Hall, an advisor to Yucaipa and the union, described the bid as "very competitive and aggressive."