Question: How does some entity which is $3.5 BILLION in debt borrow an
extra $8.3B for a merger?!?

--snippage--
beneficiaries, and total assets of over $800 million. The Tribune
Company Master Retirement Savings Trust had over $2.2 billion in
assets for the 2006 plan year listed on Schedule H of Form 5500.
A really interesting part of this litigation to watch will be the
ultimate attorneys fees awarded when this litigation ends.
-------------
Information now surfacing indicates Zell got control of the
Tribune company and its pension funds/assets worth 8.2 billion
for an investment of 300 million.

Debt is now 13 billion and assets down to 7.6 billion, mostly in
the form of non-liquid assets.

Note that the Tribune [the company] was still profitable, just
not profitable *ENOUGH*. Also note that the pension funds,
"invested" in the sham ESOP were not guaranteed by the PBGC and
are just gone [apparently into Zell's pockets].

We are looking at the "evaporation" of about 11 billion dollars
[equity + new debt] from a company under Zell's control in less
than a year.

How gross does it have to get before its criminal?

Quit top posting stuff George.
I'll answer your "question", but you already know.
As gross as stupidity may become, the rules and the law allowed all of
this.
As a matter of fact, this behavior was encouraged and abetted.

Zell didn't kill anything.


How about his net worth? I don't know about these people that want to be
media tycoons. Rupert Murdoch is the same way. I guess these guys haven't
seen the handwriting on the wall yet when it comes to newspapers. They're
dead or at least on the way out. The internet is killing newspapers. It's an
obsolete form of media and it has no future. Why people are still trying to
own a newspaper chain is beyond me. I think they are fools and will only
bankrupt themselves. It's TV, computers, and handheld devices that are the
future. Paper and ink; that's so 19th century.

Hawke