By Mondo Times editors
Boulder, Colorado USA
Posted on September 1, 2009 at 4:30pm

Orange County Register Parent Company Files for Bankruptcy Protection

-- Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Orange County Register newspaper, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 1, 2009. The Orange County Register reported:

"Freedom Communications Inc. in Irvine, parent of the Orange County Register, reached agreement with the company’s lenders on the restructuring of its debt and will complete the process through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization filed in a Delaware court today, company officials announced.

“I consider this to be good news, not bad news,” said Burl Osborne, Freedom’s interim chief executive. “It’s not about liquidation or going out of business. It allows the company to operate more effectively.”

Under the reorganization, Freedom’s debt will be cut to $325 million from more than $770 million.

Existing shareholders, including members of the founding Hoiles family, and two private equity firms, the Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners, will retain a 2 percent equity interest in the company. They also will be granted warrants that will allow them to purchase up to 10 percent of the shares in the company.

However, the family, which has owned the flagship Register since 1935, and has since seen the company grow to 33 dailies, 70 weeklies and other publications, and eight television stations, will give up control to the banks. The lenders will select a new board and appoint a new CEO.

Osborne said he expects the bankruptcy process to take four to six months, although it may take a little longer to get Federal Communications Commission approval for the company’s television stations."

The full story:
http://ocbiz.freedomblogging.com/2009/09/01/register-parent-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy/14381/

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