A deal that could finally resolve the ownership crisis at Interstate General Media — and save the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com — could be nearing completion, possibly as early as this week.
H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest had teamed up with Lewis Katz, to buy the media property for $88 million from their feuding partners, headed by George Norcross III, in a court-ordered auction. The deal failed to close last Wednesday following the sudden death of Katz in a plane crash outside Boston on May 31 and unsuccessful negotiations by Katz’s son, Drew, to sell to Lenfest.
The talks to sell the Katz family stake for $16 million stalled last week — but now appear to be back on track.
“Negotiations are proceeding with Mr. [Drew] Katz and we expect to wrap them up soon,” an assistant to Lenfest told Media Ink.
Lenfest, who was taking the role of acting publisher, generated some degree of controversy when he hired as a consultant Brian Tierney, the former PR man who had bought the Inquirer and related properties for $515 million in 2006 — only to go bankrupt and sell them to hedge funds for $139 million in 2009.
Katz and Lenfest had teamed up with Norcross and two others to buy the paper two years ago. But the owners clashed and eventually a court ordered an auction that ended up with the Katz/Lenfest side winning.
Failure to close the deal by June 11 triggered a $5 million penalty clause.