Will the next chapter in the Los Angeles Times ownership saga involve David Geffen?

The entertainment mogul’s $2-billion offer for the newspaper was rejected last year by its parent, Chicago-based Tribune Co., the Los Angeles Times reports.

Tribune, which was considering options including a sale of assets, said at the time that it intended to keep itself intact rather than sell off pieces.

But the company’s deal this week with billionaire entrepreneur Sam Zell to go private may well have changed the equation. Although Zell has also said that he intends to keep the company whole, the heavy debt load that Tribune would assume to complete the deal might force it to look for ways to raise large chunks of capital in a hurry.

The opportunities still exist to spin off The Times from Tribune in a tax-free transaction, according to Robert Willens, a tax expert and managing director at Lehman Bros. who has followed the Tribune deal closely. The ideal format, he said, would be a “sponsored spinoff,” an increasingly popular method for corporations to divest subsidiaries without incurring large tax bills.

Geffen said Monday that he would still like to acquire The Times. “I think there is an opportunity for Tribune Co. of Chicago to maximize shareholder value” by selling him the paper, he said after the Zell deal was announced.

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