Hedge fund Alden Global offers to purchase 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 offer to buy the company for $ 14.25 a share, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The potential deal represents an 11% premium over the company’s last closing price on Wednesday of $ 12.79.

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

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report news of the offer.

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

Alden currently has a 32% ownership stake in the Tribune, which it purchased in November 2019. Alden has long been criticized for buying stock in newspaper companies and cutting editorial jobs. It already owns about 200 newspapers through its majority stake in MediaNews Group, including the Denver Post, the Mercury News, and the Boston Herald.

Alden said in a letter to the Tribune Publishing board that it was ready to immediately pursue the deal.

Tribune did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Alden has made a fortune by destroying local news,” said Jon Schleuss, president of NewsGuild-CWA. “They are short-term business plans that cut newsrooms to the bone … Our thousands of members will continue to fight hedge fund holdings of local news.”

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

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