CHICAGO (AP) - A deadline Tribune Co. set to announce the results of its six-month-long strategic review passed Saturday without the media giant revealing a decision about its future.
Members of Tribune's board of directors met Friday and Saturday to consider two offers to buy the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher by circulation.
Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle have reportedly made an offer valued at $34 per share, according to a person familiar with the offer who was not authorized to disclose details and asked to remain anonymous. A bid by real estate mogul Sam Zell is reportedly valued at $33 per share.
The Burkle-Broad bid includes $500 million in cash and would use an employee stock ownership plan to raise money for a buyout. It is believed that Zell was proposing to invest $300 million and also would use a stock ownership plan.
Tribune also is said to be considering a 'self-help' plan that would involve spinning off the company's broadcast division and borrowing money to pay a one-time cash dividend to shareholders.
A meeting of the full Tribune board is reportedly scheduled for Sunday.
Like most newspaper companies, Tribune has been struggling with declining profits, circulation and advertising revenues. Earlier in March the company announced revenue fell 3.4 percent in February as its publishing division continued to struggle.
Tribune's share price fell about 50 percent from early 2004 until last spring and has languished at just above $30 for months, down from an all-time high of $60.88 in 1999.
The company, owner of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, originally set a January deadline for offers to purchase the company, but none carried the price tag the company had hoped to attract when it began soliciting bids.
Then came a late-game bid from Zell, 65, who made his fortune reviving moribund real estate. Zell, who proposed using an employee stock ownership plan as a way to lower the taxes of any sale, said he had no plans to break up the company.
Specific details of how the competing offers would create an ESOP were not available, but experts said it would allow some shareholders, such as the Chandler family, to avoid a capital-gains tax.
An ESOP is similar to a profit-sharing plan, but allows the company to borrow money and repay loans using pretax dollars. Payments of both interest and principal are tax-deductible and would create more leverage for a buyer.
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