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 First-round bids for the Tribune Co.'s Chicago Cubs and related assets came in on Friday. Nine or 10 bidders joined the fray for the baseball team, with as many as 20 bidding for its real estate assets -- primarily Wrigley Field, the Cubs' home stadium, according to a source involved in the auction.
Comcast SportsNet is also being sold in the auction, which J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is running. Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell is willing to sell the assets piecemeal or as a two- or three-piece package.
Sports Properties Acquisition Corp., a blank-check company that raised $215 million in an initial public offering in January, submitted bids for both the team and the real estate, said vice chairman Andrew Murstein. The outcome of the first round of bids is expected "in about 10 days," he said. Also expected to submit bids for the Cubs are John Canning Jr. of Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, Mark Cuban, who owns the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, and the family of Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. A group headed by Michael Tokarz of Purchase, N.Y., private equity firm MVC Capital Inc. has also been reported as a bidder. The sale is expected to bring in more than $1 billion. Zell acquired Tribune at the end of 2007 for about $8.2 billion and is now looking to pay down the debt he took on in that deal. - Nathaniel E. Baker and Demitri Diakantonis Read TheDeal.com's Cubs take first round of bids Read Dealscape's Bids for Cubs due by end of Friday Read Corporate Dealmaker's Selling the Cubs will help, but it won't bail out Sam Zell's Tribune Co. Categories Deal Video
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