Chicago – Real-estate mogul Sam Zell, whose $13.2 billion bid for the Tribune Co. media empire was accepted Monday, has already talked to entertainment mogul David Geffen about a possible deal for the Los Angeles Times and dismissed a pair of rival bidders as backstabbers.
Zell said Eli Broad and Ronald Burkle, Southern California billionaires who also bid on Tribune, approached him late in the process about forming a partnership to buy the company. Zell said in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune that he put them off until his deal closed.
Broad and Burkle then complained in a letter to the Tribune board that Zell’s bid got preferential treatment over their original offer.
“If somebody calls me and says, ‘I want to be a partner’ and the next day tries to stick a knife in my back, tell me again why I would want to do business with him?” Zell told the Tribune.
Representatives for Broad and Burkle declined to comment.
Meanwhile, a source familiar with Geffen’s thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations are ongoing said Geffen has spoken with Zell since Monday’s announcement and is optimistic that he may gain control of the Times, either in a spinoff deal or a joint-venture partnership. Geffen’s $2 billion offer for the Times was turned down in November.
“Yes, I continue to want to buy the Los Angeles Times,” Geffen said in an interview Wednesday.
Broad and Burkle, whose 11th-hour push for Tribune fell short, are meeting with their advisers and remain interested in the company, said a source close to the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A clause in Tribune’s deal with Zell allows the company to solicit higher bids until shareholders vote on Zell’s offer this summer. If Tribune ends up dumping Zell’s bid, it will have to pay him a relatively small $25 million breakup fee, giving the company greater flexibility to go another direction.
