Tribune Accepts Real-Estate Tycoon’s Bid

CHICAGO, April
2: The Tribune Company, which owns 23 TV stations in the U.S., among other
assets, has accepted an $8.2 billion takeover offer from Sam Zell, a
real-estate tycoon who has never run a newspaper.

The 160-year-old
media conglomerate owns The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, as well as 23
television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Zell’s bid,
which comes to $34 a share, brings to an end a 10-month auction to sell
Tribune. It also ends the involvement of two great American dynasties in the
Tribune Company—the McCormicks, whose patriarch, Colonel Robert R.
McCormick, founded Tribune in 1847; and the Chandlers, whose patriarch, General
Harrison Gray Otis, founded Times Mirror in 1884 and became Tribune’s biggest
shareholder when Tribune bought Times Mirror in 2000.

Tribune will sell its
Chicago Cubs baseball club after the 2007 season and its 25 percent interest in
Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

The Zell deal requires approval
from Tribune shareholders as well as the Federal Communications Commission and
other regulators.