Inside these posts: Bankruptcy hearing

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Exec says Tribune Co. needs quick Chaper 11 exit

Eddy Hartenstein in 2008. (Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times)

The publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times says it’s important that the Tribune Co. emerge from bankruptcy protection as soon as possible.

Eddy Hartenstein, also a co-president of Tribune Co., testified Monday that the cloud of bankruptcy is hurting Tribune’s ability to keep and attract employees and to forge partnerships to help it compete in the rapidly-changing media industry.

Hartenstein was the final Tribune witness in a hearing to determine whether a Delaware judge will approve the company’s reorganization plan. Noteholders who have submitted their own plan will present their case later. Get the full story »

Testimony: Tribune Co. settlement talks ‘painful’

WILMINGTON, Del. — Confirmation hearings in Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy case got under way Tuesday with a full day of testimony about the company’s tortured on-again-off-again effort to forge a settlement among its warring creditors.

Investment banker David Kurtz of Lazard Ltd., who spearheaded negotiations on behalf of Chicago-based Tribune Co. for two years, described a “painful and difficult” process paralyzed by the obstructionist behavior among the creditors.

He said efforts to broker a deal among creditors sparring over legal claims related to Tribune Co.’s 2007 leverage buyout were repeatedly undone by the aggressive tactics of hedge funds on all sides of the case who bought the company’s distressed debt hoping to profit from a restructuring. Get the full story »