It is just days away from the start of a new baseball season, and Tribune Co. finds itself in a pickle: Should it sell the Chicago Cubs, its game-losing but money-making team? Or keep the Cubs and toss out something else?
With speculation mounting that Tribune could be the newspaper industry's next takeover play, the media company faces increasing pressure to do something.
Tribune's stock price has slumped to multiyear lows, Wall Street analysts have slapped the company with rare ``sell'' ratings, and the company's strategy of corralling advertisers by owning newspapers and television stations in the same markets seems to have flopped.
``Clearly, it has not worked,'' says John Miller, portfolio manager for Ariel Capital Management LLC. The Chicago-based money manager, with $19.4 billion in assets, has held Tribune stock for years and is one of the company's largest outside shareholders with 10.1 million shares, or about 3 percent of the company _ but it is growing impatient.
``We feel the stock is significantly undervalued and we would love nothing more than to see the company look to divest some of their properties,'' Mr. Miller says. For instance, he says, Tribune could sell its broadcast operations and take the company private.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-330tribunecompany,0,3289884.story?track=rss
With speculation mounting that Tribune could be the newspaper industry's next takeover play, the media company faces increasing pressure to do something.
Tribune's stock price has slumped to multiyear lows, Wall Street analysts have slapped the company with rare ``sell'' ratings, and the company's strategy of corralling advertisers by owning newspapers and television stations in the same markets seems to have flopped.
``Clearly, it has not worked,'' says John Miller, portfolio manager for Ariel Capital Management LLC. The Chicago-based money manager, with $19.4 billion in assets, has held Tribune stock for years and is one of the company's largest outside shareholders with 10.1 million shares, or about 3 percent of the company _ but it is growing impatient.
``We feel the stock is significantly undervalued and we would love nothing more than to see the company look to divest some of their properties,'' Mr. Miller says. For instance, he says, Tribune could sell its broadcast operations and take the company private.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-330tribunecompany,0,3289884.story?track=rss
