The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Co. Tuesday added its would-be owner, Denver-based MediaNews Group, to a lawsuit trying to stop the sale of the newspaper by AT&T Corp.
Friday, AT&T, which acquired the Tribune when it bought Tele-Communications Inc. in 1999, announced it had agreed to sell the newspaper to MediaNews.
The publishing company filed a lawsuit in federal court hours later, claiming the sale violates an option agreement it struck with TCI entitling it to buy the paper back in July 2002.
The amended complaint also said MediaNews and its chairman, Dean Singleton, interfered with the agreement.
The suit alleges MediaNews was "fully aware of the existence and terms" of the option agreement when it "maliciously and intentionally" interfered with the
contract.
The Tribune management company said it will seek damages against MediaNews "to truly punish (the company) in light of the amount of its assets" and "to deter other corporations the size of (MediaNews) from like conduct in the future."
MediaNews owns 47 daily newspapers and 94 non-dailies in 12 states.
Tribune managers say that AT&T officials told them the bidding process on the paper was over and that papers were being drawn up to sell the newspaper back to them.
"Only nits remained to be resolved," the suit said.
But on Friday, AT&T officials came to the management company's Salt Lake City offices and said AT&T's board of directors had approved the sale to MediaNews two days earlier.
The management company argues that as a result of this "duplicitous conduct" on the part of AT&T, its rights to purchase the paper have "fully matured" 18 months early.
Attorneys for the Tribune management company and AT&T met briefly Monday morning before U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell. The parties agreed that any sale of the newspaper would not be official until Dec. 18, making the management company's original request for a temporary restraining order moot.
The management company still seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the sale. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Monday.
E-MAIL: mtitze@desnews.com