A former hedge fund manager is bidding for newspaper company Tronc

The Chicago Tribune
building is seen in Chicago
Thomson
Reuters

• Former hedge fund manager William Z. Wyatt is leading a
  group of investors that are close to a deal to acquire
  newspaper publisher Tronc, sources told Business
  Insider.
• Wyatt was previously a manager at Starboard
  Value. 
• At least one other private equity bid for Tronc may
  also be in the works, the Chicago
  Tribune reported on Wednesday.

An investment group formed by former hedge fund manager William
Z. Wyatt is close to a deal to acquire newspaper publisher Tronc,
according to people familiar with the matter. 

The people cautioned that there is no certainty a deal will be
reached. 

Reuters earlier reported on the talks. 

Wyatt was previously a manager at Starboard Value until June
2018, a New York-based investment adviser with a history of
investing deeply undervalued publicly traded US companies and
pushing them into mergers and acquisitions, as it did with
Internet pioneer Yahoo in
2016. 

At least one other private equity bid for Tronc may also be in
the works, Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday.

The Tribune said the group is bidding between $19 and $20 per
share for the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and other
newspaper holdings. At its mid-point, this would value the
company at roughly $740 million.

Shares of Tronc closed at $16.64 on Wednesday, meaning it has a
market value of around $620 million. 

Politico was the first to report about “industry rumblings” of an
offer for the company from a private equity firm in July.

While financial buyers have mostly avoided newspapers in recent
years, several prominent names were reported to have been
circling Tronc in recent months, including SoftBank and private
equity firm Apollo Global Management.

Tronc already sold its other newspapers including the Los
Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune earlier this year
to billionaire investor Patrick Soon-Shiong for $500
million.

The fate of the company has been in question since former
chairman Michael Ferro decided to sell his controlling stake in
the company in April to
McCormick Media which eventually fell through. Since then,
top executives have been consumed with trying to sell it, sources
say.