Rupert Murdoch Interested In Buying Tribune, LA Times

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 22, 2012 3:50PM

Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendy at the ceremony honoring Hugh Jackman with Hand and Footprints in the courtyard of the Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, CA. 04-21-09 (s_bukley / Shutterstock.com)

As Tribune Co. continues its fight to emerge from bankruptcy, reports have surfaced that media kingpin Rupert Murdoch is looking to add two of the company’s crown jewels to his News Corporation empire.

Murdoch is interested in purchasing the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times and, according to News Corp. sources who spoke with the Tribune, has started preliminary discussions with the primary debt holders who are poised to become Tribune Co.’s primary owners once the company exits bankruptcy.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey approved a July plan that would allow Tribune Co. to be bought by an investment group led by JPMorgan Chase & Co.; hedge fund group Oaktree Capital Management; and Angelo, Gordon & Co., a capital firm that invests in struggling companies. The Tribune report notes that the group is also speaking with other interested buyers.

Yet none have the desire and zeal of Murdoch; the Times, in particular, has been on his wish list for years. Buying that and the Tribune would give him newspaper presences in the country’s three largest cities. (Murdoch owned the Chicago Sun-Times briefly in the 1980s.)

News Corp. released a statement calling the reports “wholly inaccurate.” But Murdoch added fuel to the fire with a series of tweets from Chicago over the weekend, including a response to one of his followers that “no one controls the media or will ever again.”

But that won’t stop Murdoch from continuing to try.