Just as Chicago billionaire Sam Zell looked like the winner in the auction of his hometown media giant Tribune Co. with a $33 a share bid, two Los Angeles billionaires, Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad, made a last-minute offer of $34 a share. The three billionaires should take heed of a report about former LA Times editor Dean Baquet in the New York Post. Baquet, who was ousted at the Tribune paper for refusing to cut staff, reportedly told an audience at a media conference Thursday that if he had the cash, he'd place a bid for his former employer. The hiring of Baquet could go a long way toward quelling possible newsroom dissent from those who may view the billionaires as modern-day Charles Foster Kanes. Separately, analysts told Bloomberg News that Zell's $8 billion offer for Tribune may not bode well for valuations in the rest of the newspaper industry. —Matthew Wurtzel
See story from BusinessWeek
See story from The New York Times
See story from The New York Post
See story from Bloomberg News
Continue reading below
