Zell's Not Smiling

On April 3, 2007, Sam Zell was triumphant. The headline in the WSJ was "Zell Wins Tribune In Bid to Revive A Media Empire", and the story was accompanied by a dot portrait of a happy, smiling grave-dancer.

Sunday, the headline was gruesome: "Tribune Prepares for Bankruptcy Filing". And even Zell's dot portrait seems to have got the memo, despite the fact that most of the shares in the company are actually owned by Tribune's employee stock ownership program, rather than Zell himself.

First Pandit, now Zell -- can't we find anyone willing to smile for the WSJ any more? Yes we can!

Comments

[investor88:]

No one is above making some mistakes. Sam Dell made a killing in real estate but gave back some investing in newspaper but overall he is doing very well.

Long term investors suffered the last two months but in just a few days some stocks have doubled [like Citigroup], some lept 50%. Just goes to show no one is above being whipsawed, win some lose some - the winner is the one overall in a stable financial position and never facing bankruptcy.

2008 Dec 08 07:16 AM

[Michael Eis...:]

felix - great observation!

2008 Dec 08 08:00 AM

[William Chu...:]

Take the Tax Write Off for Losses matched to Prior Gains and it is the Fed, State and Local Gov'ts that cushion the Bankruptcy hit. It paves the way for enormous gains coming out of Bankruptcy. The Newspaper Model just needs to evolve to the 21st Century like Detroit Car companys.

2008 Dec 08 10:25 AM

[Badgolfer:]

IT'S INSANE. Employees have even their retirement tied up in a losing industry.Too bad they have no rights.

2008 Dec 08 11:39 AM

[Richter Scale:]

When Zell did the deal, everyone was wondering if he knew something everybody else didn't. I guess not.

2008 Dec 08 01:45 PM

[thegreatyakk:]

How long till Obama's smile fades?

2008 Dec 08 08:09 PM