Tribune Co. said it accepted Sam Zell’s buyout offer valued at about $8.2 billion, despite an 11th-hour bid by Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle that reports said was valued higher.

Zell will initially invest a total of $325 million cash in the company through two stages and will also become chairman of Tribune’s board after the deal closes later this year, the company said early Monday. Zell will also borrow $4 billion to complete the deal.

The first stage, expected to be completed late in the second quarter, will involve a cash tender offer of $34 per share for 126 million shares, with Zell contributing $260 million. The remaining shares will be purchased after that at the same $34 per share price, with Zell contributing another $65 million in cash.

The deal represents a 6 percent premium on Tribune shares when the market closed Friday, but is in line with what shares were worth back in September, when the company first announced it was accepting offers for a possible sale.

In all, the Tribune has 240 million outstanding shares, and the deal will have Zell owning 40 percent of the shares while the rest will be sold to Tribune employees under an employee stock ownership plan, which will provide a healthy tax break in the sale and will put the company in the hands of its employees.

The entire deal is expected to be completed near the end of the year, Tribune said.

Zell said he has no plans to break up the Chicago-based media company, which is the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher and owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, as well as 23 TV stations and the Chicago Cubs. Zell added that he plans to sell the Cubs after the completion of the 2007 season to help pay down debt.

Shares in Tribune were up 91 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $33.02 in afternoon trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.