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Sam Zell in February of 2008. (Charles Osgood/Tribune)
An attorney for billionaire developer Sam Zell, who engineered a buyout that left Tribune Co. saddled with debt, says proposals to reorganize the media company’s finances aren’t fair to his client.
Attorney David Bradford says the proposals do not adequately protect Zell from lawsuits that threaten to injure his reputation and waste Tribune’s assets. Get the full story »
Two Tribune Co. financial advisers provided stark evidence of the newspaper industry’s decline Friday when they testified in bankruptcy court that the company’s flagship publishing division may have dropped below an estimated $1 billion in value. Get the full story »
JPMorgan Chase executives discussed downgrading their internal credit rating for Tribune Co. just hours after the media company completed a leveraged buyout the bank helped finance.
E-mails presented in federal court in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday show an executive for the bank thought a downgrade was required after the buyout. Get the full story »
Tribune Co. said Friday that the long-awaited creditor vote in the media company’s 26-month-old bankruptcy case will allow both restructuring plans competing for a judge’s approval to move forward toward confirmation hearings scheduled for March 7.
The vote provided no surprises. Each of the two competing plans won support from the creditor alliance that proposed it and suffered rejection from the other side.
Tribune Co. owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other media properties. Get the full story »
A group of lenders has withdrawn its plan for reorganizing newspaper owner Tribune Co, leaving two proposals for ending the company’s two-year stay in bankruptcy, according to court documents.
The group known as the Bridge Lenders agreed to withdraw its plan and support Tribune’s proposal, which is based on a settlement among lenders JPMorgan Chase & Co and hedge funds Oak Tree Capital Management and Angelo, Gordon & Co. Get the full story »
Tribune Co. Chief Operating Officer Gerry Spector, a long-time associate of real estate billionaire Sam Zell, is leaving the Chicago-based media company he has helped lead since Zell took it private three years ago.
The judge in Tribune Co.’s contentious bankruptcy case signaled his approval Monday to send four competing restructuring plans out for vote by the Chicago-based media company’s creditors.
If he issues the formal order by Wednesday, which will mark the two-year anniversary of the case, solicitation packages containing disclosure documents explaining the four plans will likely be mailed on Dec. 22, said a Tribune Co. lawyer.
Creditors will then have until Jan. 28 to cast their votes and the judge will use those results to gauge support for the various plans ahead of a five-day confirmation hearing set for early March. Get the full story »
A new side-imbroglio has broken out in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy, highlighting the often incestuous world occupied by big-time bankruptcy attorneys.
Let’s see if we can sort it all out … Get the full story »
Tribune Co. is asking a Delaware bankruptcy judge to approve up to $43 million in bonuses for top executives and managers this year.
The plan calls for some 640 people to receive bonuses totaling from $16.5 million to $42.9 million if certain cash flow targets are met. The request will be the subject of a hearing Wednesday.
Tribune scaled back the incentive plan this summer after complaints from creditors and an employees union. Get the full story »
Having lost the support of many employees, his board and the creditors who will soon take over the bankrupt media company, Tribune Co. Chief Executive Randy Michaels resigned Friday, as the company’s board sought to end one of the most tumultuous episodes in the history of the 163-year-old Chicago institution.
Tribune Co. and several of its most important creditor groups announced a broad new settlement Tuesday that brings the company closer to resolving its nearly two-year-old bankruptcy case.
The new pact includes a group of senior lenders who had been holding out on a compromise, the company said, as well as the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the case, which represents junior creditors.
Still absent from the settlement, however, are several key junior creditor groups including major bondholder Aurelius Capital Management, a litigious New York hedge fund known for disrupting large bankruptcy cases. Sources close to Aurelius have said the fund plans to file its own plan by the court imposed Oct. 15 deadline. Get the full story »
The battling parties in Tribune Co.’s fractious bankruptcy case planned to sit down Monday for another day of mediation aimed at forging a settlement of legal claims surrounding the company’s 2007 leveraged buyout.
But at a status hearing in Delaware before the mediation session began, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey spent much of his time anticipating how to proceed assuming the mediation fails. Get the full story »
Tribune Co. has hired Chicago law firm Novack and Macey to explore the possibility of bringing legal action against Morgan Stanley, the New York investment bank.
The disclosure came in a bankruptcy court filing Friday asking for retroactive permission to hire the firm, which began looking into the matter in late August. Get the full story »
The board of directors of bankrupt Tribune Co. formed a special committee to oversee the media company’s contentious reorganization process and to manage any legal claims arising from its 2007 leveraged buyout.
Sources said the step is an effort to remove conflicts of interest from the debtor’s decision making process since some Tribune Co. board members and officers may be the target of buyout-related claims. Get the full story »
Chicago-based Tribune Co. said Monday it is establishing a Texas subsidiary that will consolidate the media conglomerate’s back-office operations such as financial responsibilities and systems administration. The company said it anticipates the move, anticipated in recent weeks as job openings were posted on various employment Web sites, “will save Tribune tens of millions annually.”
