Dec. 15, 2000--
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ A federal judge on Friday refused to halt the sale of The Salt Lake Tribune to Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc.
In her 33-page ruling, Judge Tena Campbell clearly denied all of the Tribune's claims that MediaNews and AT&T Corp., the paper's current owner, broke or intended to break contracts that would allow Tribune managers to buy the paper back in 2002 and manage it in the interim.
MediaNews announced Dec. 1 that it had agreed to buy Utah's largest paper for $200 million from AT&T, which acquired the Tribune when it bought Tele-Communications Inc. last year.
On the same day, the Tribune's managers sued MediaNews and AT&T and asked for a preliminary injunction to stop the sale.
They argued that AT&T broke the option agreement signed in 1997 and violated its duty to act in good faith by doing so. The Tribune also claimed AT&T broke a preliminary contract by selling to MediaNews even while it negotiated a deal with the Tribune managers.
The Tribune's attorneys also claimed MediaNews president and CEO W. Dean Singleton never intended to honor the option and management agreements.
In addition, they said Singleton interfered with a joint operating agreement between the Tribune and its chief competitor, the Mormon church-owned Deseret News. Tribune Chief Operating Officer Randy Frisch accused Singleton of acting as a "front" for the Deseret News by agreeing to let the paper go to morning publication, a move it has pushed for years.
There was no immediate word on whether the Tribune would appeal Friday's decision.
Calls to the Tribune and MediaNews were not immediately returned.
AT&T Broadband spokesman Steve Lang said his company was pleased with the decision. The telecommunications company considers the newspaper a "non-strategic asset" and had been trying to sell it for some time.
(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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