Tribune now willing to sell individual assets

[Lefty]

After the first round of bids for the Tribune came in "too low" (everything is a negotiation), the Trib has said it would consider selling off individual assets as buyers emerge.

 

I know this is the umpteenth thread about a Cubs sale, and lord knows I've chimed in on every one, but as I've always said, this is happening. Previously I had written that the junk bond market had to hold through the autumn. It has. The sale should happen in the next few months.

 

The only wrinkle for Cub fans is the possibility that the Cubs are bought by the current operators who will no longer be Tribune employees. If the current crew, McDonough, Fitzsimons & Hendry remain in charge, I am sure that most of us would not be happy.

[CubsInNC]

Lefty,

 

I am no business analyst, by any stretch of the imagination. But would the Tribune Co. stabilize itself, simply by selling off the "out of town" business? I know they own quite a few newspapers from outside Chicago, such as, I believe the LA Times and Baltimore Sun. Would divestiture from these assets relieve them of the apparent cash crunch they find themselves in? Basically, returning to a focus of Chicago-based attention (Tribune/Cubs/WGN/suburban papers)? I'm not hoping they do that, but for years that's what made them uber-successful, and I could see them attempting to return there.

[Laura]

I know this is the umpteenth thread about a Cubs sale, and lord knows I've chimed in on every one, but as I've always said, this is happening. Previously I had written that the junk bond market had to hold through the autumn. It has. The sale should happen in the next few months.

 

I appreciate the new thread -- I've been following this on some of the Cubs blogs and like to hear any insights people in the biz have.

[Lefty]

Lefty,

 

I am no business analyst, by any stretch of the imagination. But would the Tribune Co. stabilize itself, simply by selling off the "out of town" business? I know they own quite a few newspapers from outside Chicago, such as, I believe the LA Times and Baltimore Sun. Would divestiture from these assets relieve them of the apparent cash crunch they find themselves in? Basically, returning to a focus of Chicago-based attention (Tribune/Cubs/WGN/suburban papers)? I'm not hoping they do that, but for years that's what made them uber-successful, and I could see them attempting to return there.

 

The problem for the current management is that they are no longer in control of the process. The Chandler family wants a sale, and the bids have begun. Selling off a newspaper here or there is not efficient and won't make much of a dent.

 

The way to look at it is by business segments. There is print media, broadcast media and entertainment. By selling the bigger pieces to a strategic or financial buyer, they can get more value.

 

As far as a "Chicago" strategy, the newspaper business stinks everywhere. The TV business is good. I am not sure that is a more rational way to look at the company. Right now the vultures have all the money. They won't stop until they've picked at the bones. Fine with me.

[goonys evil twin]

The only wrinkle for Cub fans is the possibility that the Cubs are bought by the current operators who will no longer be Tribune employees. If the current crew, McDonough, Fitzsimons & Hendry remain in charge, I am sure that most of us would not be happy.

 

That is not the only wrinkle. What if they are purchased by the next Bill Wirtz or Peter Angelos?

[C.C.]

The only wrinkle for Cub fans is the possibility that the Cubs are bought by the current operators who will no longer be Tribune employees. If the current crew, McDonough, Fitzsimons & Hendry remain in charge, I am sure that most of us would not be happy.

 

That is not the only wrinkle. What if they are purchased by the next Bill Wirtz or Peter Angelos?

 

That's my biggest fear!

[10man]

I'm an optimist so i prefer speculating on a Wrigley reacquiring the Cubs.

[Lefty]

I'm an optimist so i prefer speculating on a Wrigley reacquiring the Cubs.

 

Then he can take down the lights.

[goonys evil twin]

I'm an optimist so i prefer speculating on a Wrigley reacquiring the Cubs.

 

I didn't understand why Rozner wanted to paint that as a potential positive, and I don't understand why you think it is either. Wrigley ownership was disastrous, was it not?

[third eye]

My biggest concern if they are sold is that they might go to a financial sponsor in a leveraged buyout. Usually sports teams would make terrible LBO candidates, but a sponsor might look at recurring revenue streams through a loyal fanbase in addition to the tourist attendance factor at Wrigley and view it as a possibility. Financial sponsors have raised a ton of capital over the last few years and need to put it to work. They are, for the first time, engaging in pseudo bidding wars for certain assets. The problem with a sponsor buyer is that they run their portfolio companies to generate cashflow to pay off the acquisition debt. In other words, there would be a very strict budget in terms of team payroll. Certainly lower than it is now.

 

Let me temper this by saying that there is a very very slim chance that a sponsor would outbid a buyer like Cuban. In other words, they could not pay more than someone who wants to be a long term buyer, because they need to quickly generate returns and exit the business, which precludes them from overpaying. I only brought this up because last year there were rumors of finacial sponsor interest in the Tribune company as a whole swirling around the market.

[Banedon]

9 posts before a Cuban reference! I would've guessed it would be much sooner... :)

[CubinNY]

Lately I've given it more thought, but I've really gone 180 on the Tribune. I might be in the minority here, but I don't mind the current ownership. They've pretty much done everything I would like an owner to do. What I mean is that, they haven't won or put up a consistent winner, but I don't think it is from lack of trying. They've put money back into the team and they've let the "baseball people" make the baseball decisions. If there is one thing I could criticize it would be that they've let the baseball people make poor decisions for too long.

 

I really fear what might happen if an owner buys the Cubs as a vanity acquisition. Jerry Jones got lucky when he hired Jimmy Johnson. And Jimmy got lucky that Minnesota was stupid.

 

There are far worse owners than the Tribune Co. in professional sports.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I really fear what might happen if an owner buys the Cubs as a vanity acquisition. Jerry Jones got lucky when he hired Jimmy Johnson. And Jimmy got lucky that Minnesota was stupid.

 

There are far worse owners than the Tribune Co. in professional sports.

 

aaaaaaaaaahh.....Hershal Walker..the one name that can absolutely kill any Viking fan's arguement....lol

[CubinNY]

I really fear what might happen if an owner buys the Cubs as a vanity acquisition. Jerry Jones got lucky when he hired Jimmy Johnson. And Jimmy got lucky that Minnesota was stupid.

 

There are far worse owners than the Tribune Co. in professional sports.

 

aaaaaaaaaahh.....Hershal Walker..the one name that can absolutely kill any Viking fan's arguement....lol

 

I'm a Vikings fan, that's why I brought it up.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I really fear what might happen if an owner buys the Cubs as a vanity acquisition. Jerry Jones got lucky when he hired Jimmy Johnson. And Jimmy got lucky that Minnesota was stupid.

 

There are far worse owners than the Tribune Co. in professional sports.

 

aaaaaaaaaahh.....Hershal Walker..the one name that can absolutely kill any Viking fan's arguement....lol

 

I'm a Vikings fan, that's why I brought it up.

 

lol...my appologies (on being a fan) :P

[The Voice of Reason]

I'm an optimist so i prefer speculating on a Wrigley reacquiring the Cubs.

 

I didn't understand why Rozner wanted to paint that as a potential positive, and I don't understand why you think it is either. Wrigley ownership was disastrous, was it not?

 

 

His point is it would be a different generation of Wrigley with different views on how to run a business/Club. Not all Grandsons think the same way as their Grandfathers did.

 

Does anyone know if the Cubs receive any compensation from the Wrigley Company for playing in "Beautiful Wrigley Field" and all the publicity the Wrigley Company gets as a result of it?

[goonys evil twin]

 

 

His point is it would be a different generation of Wrigley with different views on how to run a business/Club. Not all Grandsons think the same way as their Grandfathers did.

 

I know that, he just doesn't do a good job of defending such a claim. Talking about "righting the wrong" of the Wrigleys' selling doesn't hold up. It was a good thing they sold, because they were terrible owners.

[adamb0719]

An article about the Tribune selling the LA Times.

 

 

The intrigue surrounding the troubled Tribune Co. continues to swirl. How else to explain news that L.A. mogul David Geffen sold a Jackson Pollock painting last night for a record price -- about $140 million -- was taken as further evidence that he intends to buy the Los Angeles Times any week now? Recently he sold two other classic paintings for $143.5 million.

 

 

Three investor groups have submitted preliminary, nonbinding bids for Tribune Co., the Tribune reported, citing unnamed sources.

[shnsajax]

9 posts before a Cuban reference! I would've guessed it would be much sooner... :)

 

I've been at work all day otherwise it would have been sooner :-)

[shnsajax]

I really fear what might happen if an owner buys the Cubs as a vanity acquisition. Jerry Jones got lucky when he hired Jimmy Johnson. And Jimmy got lucky that Minnesota was stupid.

 

There are far worse owners than the Tribune Co. in professional sports.

 

aaaaaaaaaahh.....Hershal Walker..the one name that can absolutely kill any Viking fan's arguement....lol

 

I'm a Vikings fan, that's why I brought it up.

 

lol...my appologies (on being a fan) :P

 

As a Cowboys fan, Thank You =D>

[Sosa21MVP]

From what I've read on the subject, the Wrigley's weren't such a bad ownership deal until Phil Wrigley obtained control from the elders and then it went straight downhill b/c Phil cared more about the gum business and actually had a strong hand in developing the "Friendly Confines" image where people would show up for the experience of the stadium rather than the product on the field.

 

Cubs history has always intrigued me, I became a fan in 1986 with no prior knowledge of club history and it was an interesting exercise to research team history and see how much success the early Cubs teams had.

 

Forget jinxes, all my readings result in the conclusion of poor front office and/or ownership since Phil Wrigley took over.

[DivineBovine]

How about we all short trib stock to motivate them more to sell?

 

I don't think we can truly know how good/bad the trib is as an owner until they open up the books on the Cubs. The fact is, we have no idea how much they are making and how much they are investing back into the team. Typically, sports franchises have a much higher percentage of revenue invested back into the team than a standard business, because sports owners generally are not in it to become rich. They are rich already.

 

I do know that I highly doubt the revenue numbers for the Cubs. They sell out every game, have a large and loyal national fanbase. They also have a big conflict of interest with regard to media revenue.

 

And if we judge the ownership based on their record and performance, the Cubs simply suck.

[nilodnayr]

An article about the Tribune selling the LA Times.

 

 

The intrigue surrounding the troubled Tribune Co. continues to swirl. How else to explain news that L.A. mogul David Geffen sold a Jackson Pollock painting last night for a record price -- about $140 million -- was taken as further evidence that he intends to buy the Los Angeles Times any week now? Recently he sold two other classic paintings for $143.5 million.

 

 

Three investor groups have submitted preliminary, nonbinding bids for Tribune Co., the Tribune reported, citing unnamed sources.

 

Holy Mother of God, I'm going to start squirting paint at a canvas and (continue) acting like an a-hole.

[Soul]

Rather than rooting for one faceless corporation to replace another, I think I prefer to hold out hope for more of an 'experienced' sports owner to buy the Cubs. Whatever that is.........but I mean somebody who might have a desire for winning that overrides the bottom line or the stock holders (at least every once in awhile).

[Soz]

Something to keep in mind about a possible Tribune sale of the Cubs is the impact it would have on the broadcasts on WGN and WGN-TV. Cardinals fans learned that the hard way this year when the team bought a major interest in its own radio station and dropped its games from 50,000-watt KMOX after a half-century. If you don't live in the St. Louis metro area, Cardinals games are hard to find on the radio now. I know that in today's world of satellite TV/radio and Internet broadcasts, access to games of any one team isn't as difficult as it used to be, but I keep thinking back to some of the broadcast mistakes the White Sox made and how many decades it took them to recover market share in Chicago (moving their TV games from WGN to UHF in the late '60s, before everyone had UHF, or Harry Caray's first year in Chicago, when the only Sox radio outlets were three tiny FM stations that didn't even blanket the Chicago market).