UPDATE 12:30P May 21: Tribune Publishing shareholders voted Friday to approve hedge fund Alden Global Capital’s $633 million purchase of the Chicago-based newspaper chain.
The deal, which is expected to close by June 30, will take Tribune Publishing private and add the Chicago Tribune and other major dailies to the Alden portfolio, making the New York-based hedge fund the second-largest newspaper owner in the U.S. behind Gannett.
The merger’s approval hinged on California biotech billionaire and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns 23.7% of Tribune Publishing’s 36.9 million outstanding shares. Soon-Shiong said he abstained from the vote, but it is unclear how the abstention affected the outcome.
Soon-Shiong stands to collect about $150 million through the sale proceeds of his 8.7 million shares.
“Dr. Soon-Shiong abstained from voting,” said Hillary Manning, a spokeswoman for Soon-Shiong.
“For the past several years, Tribune Publishing has been a passive investment, as he has remained focused on the leadership roles he holds across his companies. When he made the investment in 2016, he hoped it would be a pathway to local newspaper ownership in Southern California. In 2018, he and his family were proud to acquire the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune from Tribune Publishing, creating the California Times. Their focus is and will be on the continued rebuilding and revitalization of The Times and Union-Tribune.”
In addition to the Chicago Tribune, Tribune Publishing owns The Baltimore Sun; the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant; the Orlando (Florida) Sentinel; the South Florida Sun Sentinel; the New York Daily News; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland; The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania; the Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia; and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia.
Earlier posting...
When billionaire biotech mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Los Angeles Times in 2018, he was seen as a white knight, rescuing the newspaper from a potentially bleak future, Bloomberg reports.
Now, as the second-largest shareholder of Tribune Publishing Co., Soon-Shiong is in a position to decide the future of local news across the country. Today, he and other investors will vote on the sale of the newspaper chain to Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund that’s notorious for making deep cuts at the newspapers it owns.
Alden, which already holds a 31% stake in Tribune, agreed in February to pay $17.25 a share, or almost $460 million, for the stock it doesn’t yet own. The deal requires the approval of two-thirds of non-Alden shareholders, meaning Soon-Shiong, with a 24% stake, holds a virtual veto over the sale of the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun, and other newspapers from Connecticut to Florida.
“If Soon-Shiong doesn’t think it’s a good deal and doesn’t vote for it, it doesn’t happen,” said Rick Edmonds, a media analyst at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The math gets even tougher thanks to Mason Slaine, a Florida businessman who owns a 3.4% stake. He told the Chicago Tribune he plans to reject Alden’s offer, saying it undervalues the company. Tribune closed Thursday in New York at $17.25, the same level as the bid.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Soon-Shiong, 68, said he hasn’t decided how he will vote. He declined to make any additional comment Thursday. A spokesman for Tribune’s special committee, which is acting on behalf of the company in the Alden proposal, declined to comment. Alden didn’t respond.
But Soon-Shiong’s role isn’t lost on Tribune journalists who have made repeated overtures to him to block Alden’s takeover. This week, Gregory Pratt, president of the Chicago Tribune Guild, published an open letter to the biotech entrepreneur, saying, “You can single-handedly keep Alden from sealing the deal.”
“We are fighting every day to keep Alden from taking full control,” wrote Pratt, who covers City Hall for the newspaper. “You can stop it. Please do.”
Now, as the second-largest shareholder of Tribune Publishing Co., Soon-Shiong is in a position to decide the future of local news across the country. Today, he and other investors will vote on the sale of the newspaper chain to Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund that’s notorious for making deep cuts at the newspapers it owns.
Alden, which already holds a 31% stake in Tribune, agreed in February to pay $17.25 a share, or almost $460 million, for the stock it doesn’t yet own. The deal requires the approval of two-thirds of non-Alden shareholders, meaning Soon-Shiong, with a 24% stake, holds a virtual veto over the sale of the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Baltimore Sun, and other newspapers from Connecticut to Florida.
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| Patrick Soon-Shiong |
The math gets even tougher thanks to Mason Slaine, a Florida businessman who owns a 3.4% stake. He told the Chicago Tribune he plans to reject Alden’s offer, saying it undervalues the company. Tribune closed Thursday in New York at $17.25, the same level as the bid.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Soon-Shiong, 68, said he hasn’t decided how he will vote. He declined to make any additional comment Thursday. A spokesman for Tribune’s special committee, which is acting on behalf of the company in the Alden proposal, declined to comment. Alden didn’t respond.
But Soon-Shiong’s role isn’t lost on Tribune journalists who have made repeated overtures to him to block Alden’s takeover. This week, Gregory Pratt, president of the Chicago Tribune Guild, published an open letter to the biotech entrepreneur, saying, “You can single-handedly keep Alden from sealing the deal.”
“We are fighting every day to keep Alden from taking full control,” wrote Pratt, who covers City Hall for the newspaper. “You can stop it. Please do.”
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