Tonight's the night for ex-Trib managers

Salt Lake Tribune owner MediaNews Group Inc. delivered paperwork to the newspaper's former managers on Thursday in anticipation of today's scheduled closing on a 1997 option agreement.

Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. (SLTPC) now has until this evening to either tender $355.5 million or return the documents to MediaNews, possibly signaling a new round of litigation in the three-year court battle for ownership of the Tribune.

And though SLTPC has kept quiet about what it plans to do, MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton anticipates a quiet day.

"I don't expect anything to happen," Singleton said, which, in his mind, will render the option agreement void. "Our view is that if the money hasn't been wired by eight o'clock tomorrow night, the option has expired."

SLTPC has fought to exercise the option agreement since Denver-based MediaNews purchased the Tribune from AT&T in January 2001. However, a dispute over the paper's $355.5 million price tag prompted managers to ask a federal judge to stop today's scheduled closing.

U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart refused to do so, despite former managers' arguments that the exercise price was reached through a flawed appraisal process. And although SLTPC attorneys said they would ask a federal appeals court to halt the closing in light of Monday's ruling, they have not yet done so.

SLTPC chairman Philip McCarthey did not return repeated calls for comment this week, nor will managers' attorneys discuss their plans for today. However, SLTPC attorney Gary Bendinger said in court Monday that his clients had been unable to secure the necessary financing to purchase the Tribune.

If SLTPC opts not to tender the exercise price, it can still pursue an appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a number of rulings in the case. Primarily, SLTPC will likely take issue with Stewart's decisions that the appraisal process was an arbitration and that the final valuation in the three-part process did not violate federal laws governing arbitrations.

Stewart has warned that SLTPC is not likely to prevail on that appeal, given the language of the option agreement, previous case law and the high legal standards for vacating an arbitration.

Still, if the 10th Circuit were to rule in SLTPC's favor, Stewart has said former managers may be entitled to a new appraisal and a new closing date.