Media Money
- LinkedIn Earnings Bode Well for Hiring and Social Media
- News Corp. Beats Estimates on Studio, Cable Strength
- Disney’s Earnings Beat; CEO Bob Iger Talks Piracy, Parks
- Ahead of Disney’s Earnings: Ads and Cable Revenue at the Magic Kingdom
- Coinstar Beats Earnings Forecast on Redbox Growth
- After The Super Bowl: Who’s Buying?
- Super Bowl XLVI: It's All About the Second Screen
- The Super Bowl's Big Advertising Winners: Super Sunday Ad Tracker
- A Sneak Peek at Facebook's New Headquarters
- Twitter’s CEO Weighs in on Google, Censorship Ahead of Facebook IPO
- LinkedIn Earnings Bode Well for Hiring and Social Media
- News Corp. Beats Estimates on Studio, Cable Strength
- Disney’s Earnings Beat; CEO Bob Iger Talks Piracy, Parks
- Ahead of Disney’s Earnings: Ads and Cable Revenue at the Magic Kingdom
- Coinstar Beats Earnings Forecast on Redbox Growth
- After The Super Bowl: Who’s Buying?
- Super Bowl XLVI: It's All About the Second Screen
- The Super Bowl's Big Advertising Winners: Super Sunday Ad Tracker
- A Sneak Peek at Facebook's New Headquarters
- Twitter’s CEO Weighs in on Google, Censorship Ahead of Facebook IPO
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- How to Date a Wall Street Man
- Standard & Poors Downgrades 34 Italian Banks
- Dividend Payout Could Hit Record Amount This Year
- Follow Leon Cooperman into RIM, Halliburton?
- Dow vs. S&P 500: Which is a Better Investment?
- Pauley Perrette's Southern Bakery a Hit in Manhattan
- Gene Munster Expects Apple Growth, Dividend
- Dow Logs Worst Day of 2012 Amid Greek Drama
- Stanford's Lawyers Subpoena Attorney of Key Witness
- How Rescuing Greece Could Destroy the World
- In Search of America's ‘Hottest Forecasters’
- Dow vs. S&P 500: Which is a Better Investment?
- Mick Fleetwood on the MP3 ‘Dumbing Down’ of Music
- Avis on the Road to Strong Growth: Analyst
- Private Homebuilders: Dead Men Walking
- LinkedIn’s Growth Is Already Priced In: Analyst
- The Real Reason Behind Bank of America’s Rally
- 5 Hedge Funds’ Top Stocks Soar After 2011 Rout
- This Valentine’s Day Love Is Served on a Silver Platter
- Dividend Payout Could Hit Record Amount This Year
- With Investors So Bullish, Stock Pullback Must Be Ahead
- Is Bill Gross, PIMCO's Bond King, Losing His Touch?
- Greece Austerity Deal Runs Into Trouble Once Again
- Why Saving Greece Could Destroy the World
- Apple’s Record Run: $500 Is a Magic Number
- Housing Still Hurting Consumers, Economy: Bernanke
- Get Ready for $5 Gas This Year: Ex-Shell CEO
- The World's Best Beers
Sam Zell Doing A Tribune Fire Sale?
Correspondent
![]() |
AP Sam Zell |
He's done layoffs, slashed news pages and upped advertising. Now he's using his real estate expertise and turning to some less obvious ways to raise money- by almost literally dismantling the company, and I'm not talking about his sale of Newsday, the New York daily.
Zell, now the company's chief executive, is looking into selling the company's high valued real estate, including Chicago's landmark Tribune Tower and the Times Mirror Square complex in downtown LA. He used softer terms when explaining his plan to employees, saying he wants to "maximize value" of the company's "underutilized" real estate.
Is selling these iconic buildings worth it? Perhaps-- their prime location and spacious square footage could bring hundreds of millions of dollars-- at least $150 million for the Tribune tower and $235 million for the LA Times complex, according to real estate experts. But that's far too simple for savvy Zell. Tribune has a much more sophisticated plan than an outright sale. Tribune said it wants to maintain a stake in the building and be able to stay in them for at least five years. Tribune could sell the buildings on the condition of a low-cost lease for the next five years. Or it could ship the journalists to lower rent buildings and lease out the landmark buildings.
Zell has been on a bit of a selling spree-- it's auctioning off the Cubs, which are expected to bring in up to $1 billion, last month it agreed to sell Newsday for $650 million, and now this. All in, this year Zell should be able to eliminate about a billion dollars in debt. This has been a top priority of Zell's since taking the company private in December when the debt load was $13 billion.
I've been blogging about the travails of the newspaper industry, yesterday writing about an Orange County paper outsourcing to India. Well, if Zell is really determined to cut costs, I wonder where he'll go next.
Questions? Comments?











