FCC decision removes hurdle blocking Tribune Co. buyout

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission approved the $8.2 billion buyout of the Tribune Co. by a 3-2 vote Friday, a move that will allow the deal to close by the end of the year.

In approving the deal, the agency granted Tribune Co. a temporary waiver of rules barring ownership of a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same city in four markets and a permanent waiver for Chicago.

Tribune Co. owns the Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, nine other dailies and 23 television stations. The buyout is being led by real-estate billionaire Sam Zell and will result in the publicly traded company becoming private.

The three Republican commissioners voted in favor of the sale while Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein were opposed.

The company owns both newspapers and broadcast stations in five markets: New York City, Chicago, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles and Hartford, Conn. It needed the waivers before it could complete the sale.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has proposed a permanent rule that would allow one company to own a newspaper and a broadcast station in any of the 20 largest markets, which includes Seattle. The full commission is set to vote on the proposal by Dec. 18.

While Martin's plan would grant Tribune some relief, it still would have pushed the closing date for the sale into next year, which the company has said would jeopardize financing for the deal.

Martin began circulating the temporary-waiver plan Tuesday. The chairman, anticipating the ownership rules may be challenged in court, said Tribune Co.'s waivers, except for Chicago, will last six months after any potential litigation is concluded, or two years, whichever is later.

The buyout plan calls for the company to be owned by an employee stock-ownership plan. Zell, whose investment in the company will increase to $315 million, according to Tribune, will become chairman.

Copps, an ardent foe of media consolidation, blasted the decision in his dissent.

"If this order were a newspaper, the banner headline would read 'FCC Majority Uses Legal Subterfuge to Push for Total Elimination of Cross-Ownership Ban,' " he wrote.