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TMCNet: Final 3 bidders for Chicago Cubs: Tribune Co. asks trio of potential buyers to polish their bids

[January 08, 2009]

Final 3 bidders for Chicago Cubs: Tribune Co. asks trio of potential buyers to polish their bids

(Chicago Tribune Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 8--And then there were three.

The sale of the Chicago Cubs has come down to three finalists, nearly two years after the team's owner, Tribune Co., put the storied franchise and Wrigley Field on the market. Originally there were 10 interested parties.

Tribune Co., which also owns the Chicago Tribune, has asked the trio to polish their offers before the company selects a winner, a decision that could come any day. The winner still would have to work out a sales contract and be approved by three-quarters of the 30 Major League Baseball owners. The finalists, who declined comment, are Cubs fans with deep ties to the city, though one resides in New York, one grew up in Omaha, Neb., and one moved here from South Africa.

Here are back-of-the-baseball-card stats on the finalists:

Tom Ricketts

Resume: Family patriarch J. Joe Ricketts became an online-stock-trading leader by founding the Ameritrade discount brokerage in Omaha. Forbes estimates the family's wealth at $2.6 billion. The bid's point person is son Tom Ricketts, who moved to Chicago in 1983 to attend college and lives in the suburbs. Two siblings, Laura Ricketts and Todd Ricketts, live in the Chicago area. The fourth, Pete Ricketts, lives in Omaha and ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006.

Business style: Tom Ricketts wanted to make it on his own and never worked at Ameritrade, now TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. A market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and finance executive before starting investment bank Incapital LLC.

Cubs connection: Tom Ricketts grew up watching the team on WGN. Once lived in an apartment above a bar across the street from Wrigley Field. Met his wife in the bleachers at a Cubs game.

Personal: Undergraduate and MBA degrees from the University of Chicago. Married, with five children.

Quote: "There are a lot of people in this world that would say Tom Ricketts is their best friend," said Curt Conklin, a college roommate who has worked at Ameritrade and Incapital. "If you wanted to go have a beer, Tom was there."

--Ameet Sachdev

Marc Utay

Business style: During the 1990s put together leveraged buyout deals in media, telecommunications and entertainment for investment banker Wasserstein Perella. A director of IMAX Corp., the large-format film company. Said to have bid on two hockey franchises without winning either.

Cubs connection: Grew up a Cubs fan in Glenview. Admires how the Boston Red Sox owners have expanded the franchise's entertainment and sports assets. His investor group includes media investor Leo Hindery, who once ran YES Network, the New York Yankees' TV channel.

Personal: Attended New Trier West High School; Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, was a classmate. On debate team and was associate editor of school newspaper. Graduated in 1977. Undergraduate and MBA degrees from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Married attorney Mindy Gildin of Long Island, N.Y., in 1988; two sons. Mother, Florence Utay, lives in Lincolnshire.

Quote: "He was a bright guy, a debate team guy, very opinionated," said high school classmate Ed Sherman, a former Chicago Tribune sports reporter.

--Susan Chandler

Hersch Klaff

Resume: A South African who moved to Chicago in the 1970s and made his money in real estate, buying distressed retail properties. Formed Klaff Realty LP in 1982 and amassed properties in the Loop. Bought shuttered stores from Kmart, Montgomery Ward, Albertson's and Mervyns.

Business style: Low profile. But an aggressive dealmaker who works with private-equity firms such as Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds and Cerberus Capital Management LP.

Personal: Graduated from the University of Witmatarsrand in Johannesburg with a degree in economics and accounting. Klaff and his wife, Avril, opened their Glencoe home in September as part of a Museum of Contemporary Art fundraiser, hosting a tour of their collection of South American and Israeli art, accompanied by a poolside Brazilian buffet.

Sports background: An avid soccer fan. A boxer in his youth while doing a required stint in South African Air Force. An exercise devotee who has been known to bicycle between meetings with papers tucked in a backpack.

Quote: "He loves nothing more than a good sweat," said longtime friend and fellow South African Eric Joss. Klaff often invited Joss to sit courtside at Chicago Bulls games during Michael Jordan era.

--Sandra M. Jones

To see more of the Chicago Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chicagotribune.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, Chicago Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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