Posted By: Margaret Pozzini

By GARY GENTILE, AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES - Like a train wreck or a car accident, when rich people do battle, everybody stops to watch. Billionaires Ronald Burkle, Eli Broad and David Geffen haven't taken off the gloves but all signs point to them fighting for ownership of their troubled hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. The fortunes of the Times, the nation's fourth-largest daily newspaper, are being watched closely by a newspaper industry beset by sales, staffing cutbacks and circulation drops.
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Last week Burkle and Broad teamed up to bid for Chicago-based Tribune Co., which acquired the paper in 2000 when it bought Times Mirror Co. Details were not disclosed. It's believed that if they succeed they would sell off Tribune's other newspapers, TV stations and its baseball team — the Chicago Cubs — and keep just the Times.

Geffen, who has feuded with Broad for years, has not submitted a bid but is known to be extremely interested in the Times and could seek financing for the estimated $15 billion or more it might take to purchase Tribune Co. to get it.

The Tribune's ownership of the Times has been rocky. Disputes between the paper's leaders and its corporate owners over costs and profits has led to the dismissal of two Times publishers and two editors. The latest to leave was editor Dean Baquet, who quit last week.

Tribune signaled its willingness to sell all or part of the company in September after being pressured by several large shareholders — among them the Chandler family that sold the Times to Tribune for $6.5 billion — angered by its lagging stock price and sagging circulation.

Many in Los Angeles would like to see the Times returned to local ownership. However, there is some trepidation about whether an owner like Geffen, Broad or Burkle — none of whom returned calls seeking comment — could check their egos and not interfere in news coverage, particularly when that coverage focuses on them or their holdings.

"Whoever buys it has to put aside all ego and do this as a public trust," said Steven J. Soboroff, a civic leader who in September signed a letter urging Tribune management not to make further staff or budget cuts at the Times. "If the local buyer is unable to do that, we will be wishing for many years the Tribune never sold them."

Former Times editor John Carroll, who left last year, said he would be happy if any of the three contenders bought the paper.

"Local ownership is no guarantee of success, but Tribune ownership seems to be a guarantee of failure," Carroll said. "My hopes are with the billionaires."

Adding to the intrigue is the adversarial relationship between Geffen and Broad, which dates to their roles in the ultimately successful effort to secure the 2000 Democratic National Convention for Los Angeles, according to a profile of Broad in "Vanity Fair" magazine.

Still, Geffen, Broad and Burkle have much in common. Each rose from modest circumstances to great wealth. Each is a philanthropist. And each actively supports the Democratic Party.

Of the three potential owners, Burkle is the only one who has made previous attempts to buy newspapers. In February, through his Yucaipa Cos. investment firm, Burkle joined forces with union workers at nine Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers in an effort to buy the chain.

When Knight-Ridder eventually sold to The McClatchy Co., which sold 12 papers it didn't want to keep, Yucaipa again teamed with the Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America to submit a bid.

"They are a company that looks for investments where there is a great deal of labor-management cooperation," Newspaper Guild president Linda Foley said. "Burkle has ties to the union movement. He was a union member himself."

The 53-year-old Burkle started as a bag boy in the supermarket chain where his father was an executive. He later purchased the chain, then bought and sold larger companies, including Ralphs supermarkets. His wealth is estimated at $2.3 billion.

Burkle is a close friend of former President Bill Clinton and has raised funds for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Broad, 73, was born in the Bronx to Lithuanian immigrants, became an accountant and, at 23, co-founded Kaufman and Broad, a home builder known now as KB Home. He bought Sun Life in Insurance Co. in 1971 for $52 million, then sold the company to AIG in 1999 for $18 billion. His net worth is estimated at $5.8 billion.

He has since taken a high profile role in boosting the arts in Los Angeles, contributing $18 million to help build the Walt Disney Concert Hall and donating $60 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Broad has told friends that he has not interest in becoming publisher of the Times and that if he and Burkle win control of the paper it's possible it would be run by a nonprofit trust.

"I would not be an activist owner," Broad recently told KABC. "I'm not a newspaper person, other than a reader."

Robert Kotick, chief executive of video game company Activision Inc., serves with Burkle on the Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) board and also is a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He believes Broad and Burkle or Geffen would be good owners.

"All three of those people deeply care about Los Angeles and they all look at this as a unique opportunity to serve the community and the greater good," Kotick said.

Geffen, 63, was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union. He became a talent agent and in 1970, co-founded Asylum Records. He helped develop the careers of Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, and The Eagles.

He founded Geffen Records in 1980 and his own film production company in 1983. His first movie was "Risky Business," which launched the career of Tom Cruise. In 1994, he joined with director Steven Spielberg and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg to form a film studio, DreamWorks SKG.

He was a millionaire by the time he was 25. His net worth is estimated at $4.6 billion. Geffen has also donated billions to charity, including $200 million to the UCLA Medical School.

He has been selling parts of his art collection recently and some have speculated he is building a war chest for a battle to buy the Times.

David Fleming, chairman of the Los Angeles Economic Development Commission, who knows all three billionaires, believes they are sincere in their desire to preserve the Times as an independent voice of a major American city.

"They want to preserve a great asset," he said, "and they think the time has come to use their considerable wealth to do that."

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