Investors' bid for Star Tribune stake is in limbo

Updated: November 30, 2009 - 9:07 PM

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The deadline on a bid by Glen Taylor and Vance Opperman to become minority owners of the Star Tribune expired Monday with no clear sign if their offer will proceed.

Taylor, owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Minneapolis publisher Opperman offered in October to acquire 25 percent to 35 percent of the newspaper's equity. Their offer, through an investment fund jointly owned by the businessmen, was valued at $6.25 million to $8.75 million.

As of Monday, the newspaper's equity holders had offered to sell less than 25 percent of their shares, according to Stephen Pflaum, a legal adviser for the fund.

Pflaum said the offer's deadline would not be extended. He said Taylor and Opperman had not yet decided how to proceed. Their options could include accepting the shares that have been offered, coming up with a new bid or abandoning their plans to invest in the newspaper.

Their bid valued the newspaper as a whole at $125 million, within the range prepared by Blackstone Advisory Services while the paper was in bankruptcy proceedings. The newspaper emerged from bankruptcy in September after creditors agreed to swap $480 million in debt for control of the company plus $100 million in new debt.

The Star Tribune has about 40 shareholders. Representatives of two of the largest, Wayzata Investment Partners and Angelo Gordon & Co., declined to comment or did not return phone calls Monday.

SUSAN FEYDER

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