Mogul David Geffen in 2-billion-dollar bid for LA Times

Dec 14, 2006, 19:33 GMT

Los Angeles - Entertainment mogul David Geffen has made a 2- billion-dollar offer for the Los Angeles Times, but the newspaper's owners, The Tribune Co., are looking for a deal to sell the entire company, the paper reported Thursday.

Geffen, who made his fortune from Geffen Records, the Dreamworks film studio, real estate and art dealings, made the formal offer last month but was told by representatives of the Chicago-based media conglomerate that they would not consider it until they had fielded offers for all of the Tribune company, the report said.

The company put itself up for auction earlier this year and attracted interest from several private equity firms, newspaper giant Gannett Co. and an alliance of Los Angeles billionaires, Eli Broad and Ron Burkle. However no formal offers for the company have yet been received.

The Chandler family, which founded the LA Times and still controls 20 per cent of the stock, is also believed to be putting together a bid for The Tribune Co.

The company's other assets include 23 TV stations, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Geffen, 63, has long coveted the paper and has an estimated net worth of 4.6 billion dollars. He recently sold off some of his art collection for world record prices in an apparent bid to raise the cash needed for the buyout.

He set two world records by selling Woman III by Willem de Kooning for 142.5 million dollars and a classic drip painting by Jackson Pollock for 140 million. That followed the sale of Jasper Johns' False Start for 80 million dollars and de Kooning's Police Gazette for 63.5 million dollars.