Los Angeles Times to be sold to U.S. biotech billionaire

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 9 — U.S. biotech billionaire Patrick
Soon-Shiong has agreed to purchase the Los Angeles Times from its parent
company Tronc, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

“We look forward to continuing the great tradition of award-winning
journalism carried out by the reporters and editors of the Los Angeles
Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the other California News Group
titles,” Soon-Shiong was quoted as saying by the newspaper. Tronc, Inc., an
American newspaper print and online media publishing company based in
Chicago, Illinois, announced Wednesday morning that it had entered into a
definitive agreement to sell the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego
Union-Tribune and various titles in the California News Group (the
Portfolio) to Nant Capital, LLC, a private investment vehicle of
California-based entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, for 500 million U.S.
dollars in cash plus the assumption of 90 million U.S. dollars in pension
liabilities. “We are pleased to transition leadership of the Los Angeles
Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune to local ownership, and we are
certain that the journalistic excellence in Southern California will
continue long into the future,” said Justin Dearborn, CEO of Tronc in a
statement.

Soon-Shiong had been said to be among a group of wealthy Angelenos who were
interested in buying the newspaper several years ago. His interest in the
paper was formalized in May 2016 when the biotech magnate invested 70.5
million dollars in its parent company, then called Tribune Publishing, the
Los Angeles Times reported. Soon-Shiong, 65, was born in South Africa to
Chinese immigrant parents who came from China during World War II.
According to Forbes, as the founder and CEO of the California-based firm
NantHealth, Soon-Shiong’s wealth now stands at an estimated 7.8 billion
dollars.The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper which has been published
in Los Angeles since 1881. It’s the fourth most widely distributed
newspaper in the United States. – XINHUA