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Published on Wednesday, 01 September 2010 15:26
Another day, another story about the Tribune Company's struggles to exit bankruptcy and hold off a company-wide takeover from creditors. Today's news has to do the bankruptcy case receiving the help of a court appointed mediator.
With the bankruptcy case seemingly stalled and the most recent Tribune reorganization plan fallen apart and mired in controversy, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey has called for a non-binding mediation process to begin right away. Judge Carey has appointed a co-worker of his, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross, to be the mediator.
Judge Carey ordered all of the major parties to this bankruptcy case to submit a plan of reorganization & resolution within two weeks to Judge Gross. The plan must be only five pages and one they would be willing to accept. The parties are not to file any motions regarding the leveraged buyout that bankrupt the company during this mediation period.
There is no timetable set to have the mediation wrapped up by. The decision will be non-binding and any participation is purely voluntary. Judge Gross will set the rules and the agenda of the process. Additionally, he will be consulting with with Kenneth Klee, who is the Los Angeles lawyer that turned in the
independent examination of the buyout, which found fraud was performed to get the deal done.
Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels issued a
statement today, which said "We're pleased that the court has appointed a mediator - this is a clear sign that reaching consensus is a valuable part of this process. We welcome Judge Gross' participation in the process and we look forward to his wisdom and guidance as we move forward."
In the meantime, as mentioned
here yesterday, the Tribune's major creditors are looking at a take-over of the company and installing their own CEO sooner than later. There is no word if this mediation process announced today will have any effect on those take-over plans.
