Tribune Media sells most of its stake in CareerBuilder

Tribune Media announced Monday it would sell a majority of its stake in online jobs site CareerBuilder to an investor group for approximately $157 million. The sale will reduce Tribune's stake in CareerBuilder from 32 percent ownership to about 8 percent.

The investors are managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, a global alternative investment manager, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board. They will become the majority shareholders.

In addition to Tribune, the Chicago-based jobs search engine is co-owned by Tegna Digital, the broadcast company that spun off from the Gannett media group in 2015, and The McClatchy Co. publishing business. Tegna and McClatchy will retain minority shares in the company, according to Appollo officials.

"CareerBuilder is a global leader in human capital solutions, and we are excited to work with the company in the next phase of its growth and development," David Sambur, senior partner at Apollo, said in a release.

Sambar pointed to CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson's work in building the job site's web brand.

"We are very proud of the work we did during our partnership with Tegna, Tribune and McClatchy, and we look forward to collaborating with Apollo and Ontario Teachers' to continue the successful transformation of our business," Ferguson said.

The sale by Tribune comes on the heels of that company being purchased by Sinclair Broadcasting for $3.9 billion, bringing Tribune's total to 42 local television stations - including WGN TV and radio in Chicago, as well as the WGN America, Antenna TV and THIS TV cable networks, Tribune Studios, and a number of digital applications and websites.