Gannett upped the ante Monday, letting Tribune Publishing shareholders know it would now pay $15 a share to take over the company. The original offer was $12.25, and the value of the stock when Gannett made it in April was about $7.50. Gannett’s behaving like an army laying siege, dropping leaflets onto the rabble within that say, We come to free you. Rise up and open the gates.
It’s tempting to think that when one destiny is weighed against the other, control of the Chicago Tribune by the Gannett chain instead of Ferro doesn’t look so bad.
For instance, I know someone who bought stock in the old Tribune Company even though he despised it, because he wanted inside knowledge of all its shenanigans. I’d write more evocatively if I’d done that too, because Gannett would now be trying to seduce me rather than simply keep me informed with its news releases. But it pains me to think that if I owned just a single share of Tribune Publishing, Ferro and the board would have a fiduciary duty to me greater than its duty to someone who’s worked at the company 30 years.
