The owner of The Boston Globe announced today that the newspaper is no longer for sale, eliminating the prospect that new San Diego Union-Tribune owner Platinum Equity would buy it.
Platinum Equity, one of two bidders for The Boston Globe, had hoped to make the paper its second major newspaper property after the U-T. A smaller sister paper in Massachusetts would also have been part of the deal.
Platinum Equity and a rival bidder reportedly offered last summer to buy the Globe from The New York Times Company for $35 million and take on $59 million in pension liabilities. Platinum Equity and another bidder made new offers last week, the New York Times reported, but the details were unknown.
The Times reported that The New York Times Company’s decision to take the Globe off the market is “an indication that it did not think the bids it received were high enough to merit a sale.”
The New York Times Company’s chairman and CEO offered a different perspective in a memo to Globe employees, saying the newspaper “has significantly improved its financial footing by following the strategic plan it set out at the beginning of this year.”
Last summer, the Globe was expected to lose an estimated $85 million this year.
Platinum Equity bought the U-T earlier this year. The firm is best known for buying companies in trouble and then attempting to turn them around.
Earlier this month, the Globe reported that Platinum Equity CEO Tom Gores said the U-T is “a very community-based product, and we want to be positive and find a way to make an impact. The last thing we want is people thinking we’re coming in to screw up the community, make a few bucks, and then leave.”