Business Unusual

Zell takes Tribune Co. private, and the shake-up begins. Read more

The $8.2 billion deal to take Tribune Co. private through an employee stock ownership plan finally went through today. Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate billionaire who engineered the deal and has named himself CEO of Tribune, is giving a press conference right now. "I'm Sam Zell. I'm here to tell you that the transaction from hell is done," he opened. "It's also the transaction that nobody in the world except us collectively believed was going to happen, but it did." "So as far as I'm concerned, today is a brave new world. I'm not real interested in the past. I'm very much interested in the future. I'm very much interested in making this a great company, a company, with openness, candor, relevance, effectiveness and profitability." ... Read more