Major TRB Ticker News

It was going to be time to comment on the 164,161 people who bought tickets this past weekend to see the Cubs play. It was going to be time to suggest, now that the holiday is over and pre-planned trips to Chicago are complete, that people aren't silly enough to buy that many tickets for this dreck of a team.

Instead, there is much bigger new:

The Tribune Co. ... authorized the repurchase of up to 75 million shares of its outstanding stock Tuesday. That number represents 25 percent of the company's outstanding stock, and is valued at $2.1 billion.

Repurchases will be funded through a combination of bank debt and publicly-issued bonds, the company said, and it will increase cash flow with at least $500 million in asset sales, which "could include certain non-core broadcasting and publishing assets as well as real estate and securities held for investment" according to a release.

As of yet, there is no MSM speculation on which assets will be sold. Even more interesting was how Fitch responded to the announcement. They followed Moody's and downgraded Trib's debt. Only Fitch gave them a triple whammy:

"The leveraged share buy-back represents a significant departure from Tribune's historically conservative financial policies and emphasizes the pressures that slower growing traditional media companies are under to boost their stock prices," Fitch said in a release.

Fitch cut Tribune's senior unsecured debt three notches to "BBB-minus," its lowest investment grade ranking, from 'A-minus." The outlook is negative, indicating an additional cut is likely over the next one to two years.

In other words, unless the debt level is cut, Trib debt will have junk bond ratings in the next 12 to 24 months. That could spur more asset sales than the announced $500 million.

Cross your fingers, Cub fans. It could be happening!