Potential Third Bidder Emerges In Inquirer Ownership Feud
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The feuding owners fighting for control of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News now know more about a potential third bidder, the Newspaper Guild. It represents reporters, photographers and others.
(Read more on this ongoing story.)
Like the poker game it could become, the Newspaper Guild is showing some of its cards if it becomes a third-party bidder.
Guild Executive Director Bill Ross says he can now publicly disclose two of six potential investors. The wealthy philanthropist Raymond Perelman, who tried unsuccessfully to bid against hedge funds to buy the media company in 2010, and the Guild's parent organization, the Communications Workers of America.
Ross describes the others as, "A few more philanthropists and private equity firms." They want to remain unnamed for now.
Just as the boardroom brawl became public months ago, Perelman said that he would buy the company all himself, and he didn't want any partners.
Apparently, Ross says Perelman's lawyer now clarifies, saying, "Perelman meant he didn't want to partner with George Norcross and Lewis Katz, now the rival co-owners willing to buy each other out."