Tribune Publishing Shareholder Sues Board

(RTTNews) - Capital Structures Realty Advisors LLC, a shareholder of Tribune Publishing Co. (TPUB), has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing its board of breaching its fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder's value.

The lawsuit, which names Tribune Chairman Michael Ferro, Tribune CEO Justin Dearborn and other board directors as defendants, alleges that Tribune sold a stake in the company to a new investor thus making Gannett Co.'s (GCI) unsolicited attempt to takeover the company more difficult.

Tribune had last month sold about 4.7 million shares to Nant Capital at $15 a share.

Meanwhile, Tribune Publishing, which owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, Thursday said that all of its nominees were elected to the company's board, including Justin Dearborn, David Dibble, Michael Ferro Jr., Philip Franklin, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Reck, and Donald Tang, and Carol Crenshaw.

Gannett, which owns USA TODAY, had urged Tribune Publishing's stockholders to withhold their votes in connection with the election of directors.

According to reports, Gannett might drop its plans to acquire Tribune Publishing after the results of annual election of directors.

In mid-May, Gannett had made an unsolicited offer to acquire Tribune Publishing for $15.00 per share, with a total value of about $864 million, including the assumption of certain Tribune liabilities.