Tribune buys Times Mirror

March 13, 2000
Web posted at: 6:27 AM EST (1127 GMT)

LONDON (CNNfn) - Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, will buy Times Mirror Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, in a $6.4 billion deal that would create the third-largest newspaper company in the United States.

According to the LA Times' electronic edition Monday the Otis and Chandler families that control Times Mirror (TMC: Research, Estimates) have agreed to end their 100-year ownership of the company. The newspaper said the deal was approved late Sunday night by the Times Mirror board.

Investors in Times Mirror will be offered a choice of $95 cash per share, or 2.5 shares in Tribune (TRB: Research, Estimates), worth some $93, for each Times share. That's a premium of almost 100 percent over Times Mirror stock's closing price Friday of 47-15/16.

The LA Times reported that although shareholders have yet to vote on the deal, the Chandler family, which controls two-thirds of the voting shares, initiated the talks and has pledged its shares to Tribune.

The combined company will have a total circulation of some 3.6 million, placing it behind newspaper publishers Gannett and Knight Ridder.

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