Alden Global hedge fund offers to buy Tribune Publishing

Alden Global hedge fund offers to buy Tribune Publishing

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Tribune Publishing owns the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News and the Baltimore Sun, among other local newspapers.

The hedge fund made a non-binding proposal to buy the company for $ 14.25 a share, according to a document submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The potential deal represents an 11% premium to the company’s last closing price of $ 12.79 on Wednesday.

“We believe that, as a private company, Tribune would be able to unlock significant strategic and financial value, allowing us … to make an offer to acquire all of Tribune’s common shares not yet owned by Alden,” the hedge fund said. .

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the bid.

In June, Alden acquired a third seat on the board of Tribune Publishing in exchange for a strike agreement with the newspaper chain. The deal prevents Alden from increasing its stake in the company until June 2021.

Alden currently has a 32% stake in Tribune, which it bought in November 2019. Alden has long been criticized for buying stakes in newspaper companies and then cutting jobs in the newsroom. It already owns about 200 newspapers through its majority shares in the MediaNews Group, which includes the Denver Post, Mercury News and the Boston Herald.

Alden said in a letter to Tribune Publishing’s board that he was ready to start the business immediately.

Tribune did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Alden made his fortune by destroying local news,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss on Thursday. “They come up with short-term business plans that cut newsrooms to the bone … Our thousands of members will continue to fight ownership of local news hedge funds.”

In a petition last December to the Tribune Publishing board, hundreds of Tribune employees said Alden has a “well-documented history of extracting short-term profits from already lean operations, cutting newsroom jobs and denying fair wages and benefits.

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