As the clock ticks down on Tribune Co.’s self-imposed deadline of Saturday for auctioning off the big media company, much is unknown about the apparent favored bid from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell and how it would be structured, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Zell, 65, has said little publicly except that he would invest $300 million in cash and become the minority partner of a newly created employee stock ownership plan that would buy up the company’s shares and take Tribune private. Zell declined an interview request Wednesday.

A Tribune spokesman said Wednesday that the board of directors was expected to make a decision by Saturday on the fate of the Chicago-based company, the parent of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Cubs baseball team and many other newspapers and TV properties.

An executive within Tribune said the board was scheduled to meet Friday and was expected to announce a deal with Zell that day. Financial news site TheStreet.com reported Wednesday that Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, who complained last weekend that Tribune was giving their bid short shrift, had resumed talking with Tribune and could make a counter-bid before the deadline. Broad and Burkle did not return phone calls seeking comment.

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