The Chicago Tribune is reporting the sale of the Chicago Cubs is imminent as the Tribune Co. is looking at narrowing the field of potential buyers from three to one.
The Chicago Tribune is reporting the sale of the Chicago Cubs is imminent as the Tribune Co. is looking at narrowing the field of potential buyers from three to one.
Of course, everything is relative when considering the sale of the Cubs, a process that’s dragged on much longer than many anticipated. During that time the valuation of the assets — the Cubs, Wrigley Field and a stake in a sports-cable network rose from $600 million to more than a billion dollars to a current valuation of $800 million or so, according to insiders. During that time the Tribune Co. went from a profitable public company to a debt-riddled provate firm in bankruptcy.
The three finalists for the team are believed to be Chicago real-estate investor Hersch Klaff, the Ricketts family (the Omaha-based founders of Ameritrade, now part of TD Ameritrade Holding Co), and New York City investor Marc Utay, a Chicago native. That’s far from the colorful group of 10 who originally made the cut to own the team — a group that included Mark Cuban, who sounds irked about losing out on a chance to own the team.