Shareholders of Tribune Publishing will vote on the company’s sale to Alden Global Capital. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire who owns The Los Angeles Times, could determine the outcome.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of The Los Angeles Times, is denying reports that said he was exploring selling the company. The denial on Friday came after The Wall Street Journal reported that the billionaire investor was exploring selling the company just three years after he bought the Times along with the San Diego Union- Tribune and other weeklies from Tribune Publishing in 2018 for $500 million.
L.A. Times Owner’s Videos Blur Ethical Line
The Los Angeles Times’s ongoing video series about the science behind the novel coronavirus has a lot to recommend it. It is a wide-ranging, probing and factual account of the origins and biology of the pandemic. It also features an unlikely host: Patrick Soon-Shiong, a physician and billionaire biotech entrepreneur. Soon-Shiong happens to be the owner and executive chairman of the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the Los Angeles health care billionaire, has apparently shifted sides and is now backing the bid by McClatchy Co. to take over Tronc, owner of the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the struggling Daily News. He had originally backed a bid by hedgie Will Wyatt’s Donerail Group to take over Tronc — but a rift developed between the two in recent weeks, sources say.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the biotech billionaire who paid $500 million to buy the Los Angeles Times from Chicago-based Tronc, may have his sights on acquiring the rest of the company.
Inside Tronc’s Sale Of The Los Angeles Times
Tronc is getting a big premium for its flagship asset, and the Times is getting a return to private, local ownership. But a lot of questions remain about where Patrick Soon-Shiong will take his new prize.
Exclusives
Biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has agreed to purchase the Los Angeles Times from its parent company Tronc, restoring local ownership and perhaps ending a turbulent period for the storied 136-year-old institution. Chicago-based Tronc on Wednesday announced the sale of The Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune to Soon-Shiong’s investment firm Nant Capital for nearly $500 million in cash. In addition to the purchase price, the deal includes the assumption of $90 million in pension liabilities.
The owner of the Los Angeles Times is close to a deal to sell the newspaper to Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire Los Angeles doctor, two people familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday. The $500 million deal comes amid months of turmoil at the Times, including upheaval in the editorial and management ranks. The transaction would include the Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune, these people said. Soon-Shiong is a major shareholder in Tronc, the parent company of the Times.
