Ex-Trib owners to appeal

Former managers of the Salt Lake Tribune have placed all of their eggs, so to speak, in a federal appeals court's basket.

Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. (SLTPC) failed to exercise its option to purchase the newspaper by a Friday night deadline, instead notifying the paper's new owners it plans to ask the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the final exercise price of $355.5 million.

In a letter delivered Thursday evening to current Tribune owner MediaNews Group Inc., SLTPC's Washington, D.C., law firm said it intends to challenge "the correctness of that price and the legitimacy of the process that produced it."

"Tribune Publishing expects to prevail in such challenge and will not agree to close at what (MediaNews) contends — and what Tribune Publishing disputes — is the correct exercise price of $355.5 million," the letter states. "Tribune Publishing believes it will be able to show entitlement to a new appraisal."

Under the circumstances, according to the letter, little would be gained by holding a formal "closing."

SLTPC has fought to exercise the option agreement since Denver-based MediaNews purchased the Tribune from AT&T in January 2001. The agreement was signed in 1997 when SLTPC sold the Tribune to TCI, which later merged with AT&T.

As the closing deadline neared, however, SLTPC asked U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart to postpone it indefinitely until the 10th Circuit ruled on its challenge to the appraisal process. Stewart refused to do so, noting he had already upheld the process that produced the $355.5 million price tag and stating his belief that managers had little chance of succeeding on their appeal.

SLTPC could have filed an emergency appeal with the 10th Circuit, asking it to stop Friday's closing, but it opted not to do so.

Also in Thursday's letter, SLTPC said closing documents prepared by MediaNews are deficient and such conduct has "impaired Tribune Publishing's ability to close successfully in accordance with what the parties to the option agreement intended."

Now that the court-imposed closing date has passed, the two sides appear at odds as to what will happen next in the three-year ownership dispute.

MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton said Thursday that if SLTPC decided not to tender the $355.5 million, the option would expire and the bulk of the litigation would be over. A scheduled November trial would likely still take place, he said, although on much narrower issues.