Zell wastes no time in taking control of Tribune Company
Real estate magnate Sam Zell took control of newly private Tribune Co. on Thursday and began shaking up the newspaper and TV company the moment the $8.2 billion buyout he led closed, reshuffling the board, naming two top executives and promising more action ahead.
Taking on the CEO and chairman roles, Zell made clear he won't hesitate to make sweeping changes at the media conglomerate even though he has no previous experience in the industry.
He signaled he has no immediate asset sales in mind at the company that owns 23 television stations and nine daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, although the Chicago Cubs baseball team and Wrigley Field are to be auctioned off by July.
However, he made clear that other changes are coming.
"There's a new sheriff in town and the name of the game is excellence, relevance tied to revenue," Zell said at a news conference less than three hours after the deal's closing was announced. "I'm sick and tired of listening to everyone talk about and commiserate over the end of newspapers. They ain't ended and they're not going to end. I think they have a great future."
Graphically demonstrating the change in culture at the company, the 66-year-old Zell was tieless and wore jeans and cowboy boots in his appearance at buttoned-down Tribune Tower.
Joking about his new hands-on role in an interview with the flagship Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, he said: "You call it CEO and I'll call it owner."
Zell has had 8½ months to ponder changes since agreeing to head the debt-heavy buyout, which takes the company private under an employee stock ownership plan, and he wasted no time putting them into effect.
He added five directors to the board and named two longtime associates to key management posts. Randy Michaels, who helped him turn around radio company Jacor Communications with the help of significant cost cuts, will head the broadcast and Internet operations, and Gerry Spector, who has been chief operating officer at Zell's Equity Residential Properties, will be Tribune's chief administrative officer.
Zell said he plans to add Jeffrey Berg, Brian Greenspun, William Pate, Maggie Wilderotter and Frank Wood to the board -- a mix of people with ties to both the media and Zell among them.
Berg, 60, is chairman and CEO of International Creative Management Inc. Greenspun, 61, is chairman and CEO of The Greenspun Corp., president and editor of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper and a "significant investor" in Tribune with his family.
Pate, 44, is chief investment officer of Equity Group Investments, Zell's firm. Wilderotter, 52, is chairman and CEO of Citizens Communications. Wood, 65, is CEO of the venture capital firm Secret Communications and a former lawyer who spent 33 years in the radio broadcasting business.
The closing came after Tribune received the final cash installment from the four banks financing the deal -- JP Morgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. The lenders had given the deal last-minute scrutiny because of declining conditions at Tribune and in the public markets that will cause them to take a hit on the loan, but the company cleared all the benchmarks needed to guarantee financing.
Tribune's stock was to cease trading at the market's close on Thursday.
No one knows exactly what cutbacks, asset sales or other moves to expect from the blunt-spoken billionaire -- known as a brilliant investor and bargain-hunter in industries other than media. But even a man who long ago dubbed himself "The Grave Dancer" for his ability to revive moribund properties faces a tough task in trying to turn around the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, its revenues still in free fall.