Chicago Cubs file Chapter 11 to speed team's sale
stevek
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Chicago Cubs file Chapter 11 to speed team's sale
AP – .23 mins ago
WILMINGTON, Del. – The Chicago Cubs are seeking Chapter 11 protection, a step that will allow its corporate parent to hand the team to new owners.
The team filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Monday. The move was anticipated as the Tribune Co. looks to complete an $845 million sale of the team, Wrigley Field and related properties to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts.
Tribune, which also owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy protection in December, but the Cubs were not included in the filing. The team's brief stay in Chapter 11 is expected to protect the team's new owners from potential claims from Tribune creditors.
AP – .23 mins ago
WILMINGTON, Del. – The Chicago Cubs are seeking Chapter 11 protection, a step that will allow its corporate parent to hand the team to new owners.
The team filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Monday. The move was anticipated as the Tribune Co. looks to complete an $845 million sale of the team, Wrigley Field and related properties to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts.
Tribune, which also owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy protection in December, but the Cubs were not included in the filing. The team's brief stay in Chapter 11 is expected to protect the team's new owners from potential claims from Tribune creditors.
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Comments
Some of the Trib's creditors may have put the fear of God in the Ricketts gang.
Or, Ricketts' lawyers demands may have just been prudent and cautionary.
Regardless, if I was a Trib creditor, I would have been alleging "fraud" from
day ONE of the Trib's filing.
MILLIONS of dollars that could have gone to Trib creditors - thru the sale of
the Cubs - is likely now lost in spillage via fees and costs. And, the gross-sale
proceeds are still going to be doled out by the Trustees; more fees/costs.
Meanwhile, peasants with a few-thousand in credit-card debt, can end up in
jail if they fail to answer even ONE question correctly in BK.
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October 12, 2009 / Copyright CT
Now that Tribune Co. has finalized a deal to sell the team to the Ricketts family, it is passing the Cubs through bankruptcy court to give the new owners comfort that the creditors in the original case have no claim against the sold company. When it filed for bankruptcy, Tribune Co. was $13 billion in debt.
The Cubs' stay in bankruptcy is expected to last just one day. The bankruptcy judge in the Tribune Co. case has scheduled a hearing on Tuesday.
The judge has already approved Tribune Co.'s transaction with the Ricketts family. Under terms of the deal, the Cubs, Wrigley Field and 25 percent of Comcast SportsNet Chicago will be placed in a limited partnership owned 95 percent by the Rickettses. Tribune Co. will retain 5 percent in the complex structure intended to reduce the sizable tax bill that would otherwise accompany an outright sale. The Ricketts family will contribute $823 million to the partnership. Tribune Co. will receive about $740 million after taxes and other adjustments.
Once the bankruptcy judge clears the Cubs' bankruptcy case, the Ricketts family is expected to close its deal with Tribune Co. by the end of the month.
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
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