I hope this works out as the club needs fan-owners!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15758595/from/RS.2/
Potential bid to buy Cubs in works
Group of 15 investors lining up financing if Tribune decides to sell
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:47 p.m. CT Nov 16, 2006
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CHICAGO - A group of 15 investors is lining up financing that would allow it to purchase the Chicago Cubs if the team is put up for sale by its parent, Tribune Co.
Tom Begel, chairman of TMB Industries, said Thursday that he and other investors expect the team to be sold for up to $600 million.
Tribune, the Chicago-based media company, bought the Cubs in 1981 for $20.5 million.
“I’m guessing the bidding will be fierce,” said Begel. “I think there will be a lot of Chicago groups like ours that right now are trying to put a coalition together to do this.”
Begel wouldn’t disclose the names of others in his consortium, but said the group includes “very prominent local people” as well as others from across the country. He said the group would like to purchase the Cubs from Tribune or another company that buys Tribune’s assets.
Tribune, pressured by large shareholders disappointed with its stock price, has said it will decide at the end of the year whether to sell certain assets or the entire company. Those assets also include 11 newspapers, led by the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and 25 television stations.
Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman declined to comment.
Two Southern California billionaires joined forces last week to bid for the entire Tribune Co.
The company also reportedly received four preliminary bids from private-equity investors and one from newspaper publisher Gannett Co.
Don Levin, owner of the Chicago Wolves minor league hockey team, also said this week he’d contacted Tribune to express interest in buying the Cubs.
Levin, whose DRL Enterprises operates a variety of businesses ranging from loose tobacco and rolling papers to medical equipment and machinery leasing, said he would be able to finance such a transaction on his own.
“To own the Cubs would be a spectacular thing,” the 59-year-old lifelong Chicagoan said in an interview. “It would be a great thing.”
Tribune’s shares rose 21 cents to $32.31 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
© 2006 The Associated Press.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15758595/from/RS.2/
Potential bid to buy Cubs in works
Group of 15 investors lining up financing if Tribune decides to sell
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:47 p.m. CT Nov 16, 2006
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CHICAGO - A group of 15 investors is lining up financing that would allow it to purchase the Chicago Cubs if the team is put up for sale by its parent, Tribune Co.
Tom Begel, chairman of TMB Industries, said Thursday that he and other investors expect the team to be sold for up to $600 million.
Tribune, the Chicago-based media company, bought the Cubs in 1981 for $20.5 million.
“I’m guessing the bidding will be fierce,” said Begel. “I think there will be a lot of Chicago groups like ours that right now are trying to put a coalition together to do this.”
Begel wouldn’t disclose the names of others in his consortium, but said the group includes “very prominent local people” as well as others from across the country. He said the group would like to purchase the Cubs from Tribune or another company that buys Tribune’s assets.
Tribune, pressured by large shareholders disappointed with its stock price, has said it will decide at the end of the year whether to sell certain assets or the entire company. Those assets also include 11 newspapers, led by the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and 25 television stations.
Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman declined to comment.
Two Southern California billionaires joined forces last week to bid for the entire Tribune Co.
The company also reportedly received four preliminary bids from private-equity investors and one from newspaper publisher Gannett Co.
Don Levin, owner of the Chicago Wolves minor league hockey team, also said this week he’d contacted Tribune to express interest in buying the Cubs.
Levin, whose DRL Enterprises operates a variety of businesses ranging from loose tobacco and rolling papers to medical equipment and machinery leasing, said he would be able to finance such a transaction on his own.
“To own the Cubs would be a spectacular thing,” the 59-year-old lifelong Chicagoan said in an interview. “It would be a great thing.”
Tribune’s shares rose 21 cents to $32.31 in trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
© 2006 The Associated Press.
