With a bidding deadline for Tribune Co. set for Jan. 17, the charitable foundation that is the media company’s second-largest shareholder said Thursday that it had hired Blackstone Group as an advisor on courses of action that could include selling its 12% stake or joining in a bid for the parent of the Los Angeles Times, the paper reported.
The McCormick Tribune Foundation, which holds about 28 million Tribune shares, also said it had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the company, enabling it and Blackstone to look at nonpublic financial information about Tribune. Several private-equity firms previously signed such agreements as a prelude to making bids.
Among the possible actions the foundation outlined in a regulatory filing Thursday were “making additional purchases of [Tribune] common stock or disposing of its shares.”
