WTF Chicago Tribune?! Zell cutting into bone now

;D ;D ;D

Great analogy! Although I'd like to hear him simplify it even more with a quote like this: "YES, I'M A TOOL!"

 

That would work, too. Always have known I need an editor.

 

Here's the thing. Zell's "mistake" of buying the Tribune might have cost him "a great deal" of money, but the mistakes he's made running it over the past two years have cost hundreds of other people their livelihood. And he's basically inflicted a terminal illness upon what was once a great newspaper.

Thanks a lot, Sam. You're a real hero.

 

Phil Rosenthal's take: "I made a mistake, I was too optimistic":

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2009/04/sam-zell-on-tribune-co-acquisition-i-made-a-mistake-i-was-too-optimistic-.html

There are comments actually defending Zell. Have at it, sharks ...

 

Dear Mr. Zell:

The mistake you made wasn't buying Tribune while it was going downhill. The mistake you made was pissing off a bunch of people who were trying to preserve their livelyhoods. There was a right way, and a wrong way to go about running the company. You chose the wrong way.

 

How much did Zell pay for the whole thing, and how much had the entity he bought it from paid for back when they bought it? I'm just trying to get a feel for the market valuation of what Zell bought, and how such an apparently successful guy in another field can be so reckless as to pay so much for something he knew little about and which would require him to lereverage so much of the purchase price and this take on exorbitant debt service.

What an absolute airhead.

 

Zell put $300 million into the Tribune company in Dec. 2007.
He had an option to pay more and take greater control of the company.
His money, along with borrowing, allowed the company to buy the public stock and go public. The was purchased for $34 a share. If it was still public, the stock would have been real low (like other public media companies).
The company has around $10 billion in debt.
Along with Zell, employees own stock in the company in their retirement fund (ESOP). But because the company is bankrupt, the stock is worthless. Ultimately, the creditors probably will take ownership of the company. With with Zell's stock also worthless, maybe the creditors would vote him out.