The battle for Long Island, N.Y.-based Newsday is expected to heat up this week after Mort Zuckerman, owner of the rival Daily News, reportedly
offered $580 million for the newspaper Friday, matching the bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
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Zuckerman is expected argue to executives of Tribune Co. that his bid is superior because it can be completed faster and has less potential to get mired into a
regulatory morass, The New York Times reported. News Corp. already owns the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal as well as two New York-area TV networks. Aside from the price, the structure of Zuckerman's bid is also similar to the offer pending from News Corp. The deal is structured as a joint venture, in which Tribune would own a small percentage, nearly 5%, for several years as a mechanism to reduce its tax liability. Meanwhile, a third bid could emerge from the Dolan family, which controls Cablevision Systems Corp., the New York cable group, according to recent reports.
Tribune's new chief executive, Sam Zell, confirmed on a conference call last week that he was
considering selling Newsday, a reversal of his original plan to keep Tribune's core businesses largely intact.
Zell said he had been approached by several suitors for what is one of Tribune's largest papers and was considering a sale amid a rapid decline in revenues in the past several months. -
Donna Block
See story from Tthe New York TimesSee TheDeal.com story on the Newsday auction
