Tronc Sells The Los Angeles Times to Local Billionaire for $500 Million

The Los Angeles Times was sold to Patrick Soon-Shiong, a health care mogul and former surgeon, for $500 million. The deal includes The Times’s sibling paper, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and smaller publications in the California News Group. The deal, with Dr. Soon-Shiong’s private investment arm, Nant Capital, also includes the assumption of $90 million in pension liabilities. The agreement brings to a close a tumultuous period marked by the ouster of top leaders, the suspension of the newspaper’s publisher and a contentious unionization effort. The sale, which is expected to be completed in the coming weeks, would leave The Times under local ownership for the first time since the Chandler family sold the Times Mirror Company to a Tronc predecessor, the Tribune Company, in 2000. The entry of Dr. Soon-Shiong would end a period of corporate control that included severe layoffs, cost cuts and, for a time, a frat house culture in its top ranks. By agreeing to sell the paper, Tronc also seems to be retreating from the national and international ambitions the company entertained after Michael W. Ferro Jr. became its chairman and biggest shareholder two years ago.