By: E&P Staff The Tribune Company is near a settlement to unwind two partnerships that were the subject of a bitter boardroom battle this summer between the company's executives and the Chandler family, Tribune's biggest shareholder, according to reports in the The Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal.
While the details have not yet been hammered out, the Chandlers and Tribune are reportedly hoping to come to an agreement before the company's board meeting next Thursday.
Earlier this year, reports the Journal, there were talks to break apart the two partnerships in question which comprise $3.5 billion of the company's assets as part of a prelude to selling off the company's newspapers and spinning off the company's broadcast TV division. These partnerships include the Tribune's real estate, stock, and cash, and would have likely created a high tax bill in the event that the company spun off divisions or sold assets.
The Journal reports that the potential settlement would give the Chandler family, which owns 15% of Tribune, the company's real estate from the partnerships, and that the remaining cash and stock would be divided based on recent valuations. The agreement would also reportedly define a process by which the two sides could address the issue of the company's business strategy going forward.
Even following such an agreement, Tribune remains under pressure from stockholders to boost the value of the company's shares, which have gone down approximately 40% in the past two years.
To address shareholders' concerns, Tribune announced in May it planned raise $500 million through asset sales. As part of the effort, the company yesterday announced that it would sell WLVI-TV in Boston to Sunbeam Television Corp. for $113.7 million. So far, the company has made $420 million from such sales, and it is currently reviewing bids for the San Fernando property where the Los Angeles Times printing facility was closed earlier this year.
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