Posted on 10/31/2011 9:42:00 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
(Crain's) The federal judge overseeing the Tribune Co. bankruptcy case shot down reorganization plans submitted by the Chicago-based media company and a dissident creditor group, threatening to appoint a trustee to oversee the case if they don't resolve it soon.
Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2008 under the weight of $13 billion in debt, a year after the company was taken private in an $8.2-billion leveraged buyout led by real estate mogul Sam Zell, who became its chairman.
In a decision that started with the parable of the scorpion that stings the fox carrying him across the river only to die while destroying his enemy, the judge also stressed that the company and creditors must promptly find an exit door.
The court is equally resolute that, if a viable exit strategy does not present itself with alacrity, and despite any disruption to management, as well as the added cost and delay this might inevitably occasion, the court intends to consider, on its own motion, whether a Chapter 11 trustee should be appointed, Judge Carey wrote.
The two sides also disagreed on the value of the company, with the Tribune and its creditor supporters pinning its worth at $6.75 billion and the rival creditor group saying it could be valued at $8 billion.
Late last year, then-CEO Randy Michaels was ousted from his post after a New York Times report that detailed lewd and questionable behavior by his executive team.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagobusiness.com ...
Debt in underfunded pensions, declining revenue and margins, weak cash...$1.1 billion in total debt coming due in later years.
The New York Times companys legal structure would allow it to declare bankruptcy for the Boston Globe without jeopardizing its other properties, according to a lawyer quoted by The Herald. This is because The Globe is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, as are the Times and some other holdings.
The Herald also reports that politicians are coming out to support the Globe, which raises the question of how the paper will cover them in the future.
These socialist papers are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democrat party (or vice versa). Whichever, they’re working in concert to destroy the constitution and our liberty. Next we’ll see Obama’s Marxist government bailing them out. The “free press” is a relic of the past.
Unless you take "free press" to mean the corporation is broke, all their brothers and sisters are broke, the whole media family is, therefore, broke...but the presses keep rolling out the News, journolists keep getting paid for writing or reporting the "news", the editors keep "editing" the news..where does the money come now to pay the bills-keep the electricity on, pay the salaries?...the creditors are not being paid? This bankruptcy has been going on for some time now.
Would be like Alcatel, a French owned telecommunications equipment maker, who could outbid any American competitor because being government owned meant debt and/or revenues really did not matter much because as best I can explain the nonsensical business plan... I can only think of when Hillary once said during her presidential campaign speech at the Lewiston, Maine armory: "The government [spending] is not about making a profit."
= FREE MONEY
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