Hedge fund to acquire Tribune Publishing in $630M deal

Hedge fund Alden Global Capital will acquire Tribune Publishing, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers, in a deal worth $630 million.

The companies announced on Tuesday that Alden will acquire all of the outstanding shares in Tribune that Alden doesn’t currently own for $17.25 per share in cash.

The Hedge Fund currently owns 11.5 million shares of Tribune common stock, representing  31.6 percent of the company’s outstanding shares.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. Upon its completion, Tribune will become a privately held company, and its stock will no longer be listed on nay public market.

“Over the past year, the Company has taken a number of actions to adapt to an ever-changing business and industry environment, including the impact of COVID-19. These actions included strengthening the Company’s financial position, driving digital growth and investing in high-quality content to better serve customers, employees and communities,” Philip Franklin, chairman of the board for Tribune Publishing, said in a statement.

“This positioning enabled the special committee to negotiate a premium, all-cash price, which the committee concluded was superior to the available alternatives,” he said.

Tribune Publishing Company owns roughly 20 newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, the New York Daily News and South Florida’s Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel.

Meanwhile, Alden owns roughly 200 publications through a company known as MediaNews Group, according to the Chicago Tribune.

In a bit of good news for local media outlets, as part of the deal Alden signed a non-binding term sheet to sell The Baltimore Sun to public charity Sunlight for All Institute, returning the newspaper to Maryland ownership.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Stewart Bainum Jr, the owner of the Sunlight for All Institute, says his aim is to benefit the community with the purchase of the newspaper.