Santa Ana-based Freedom Communications Inc. has received a third loan offer to help it maintain operations while it goes through a bankruptcy auction, the company’s attorney said during a hearing held Friday at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central District of California.
The Orange County Register identified the source of the latest offer as Denver-based Digital First Media, publisher of the Long Beach Press-Telegram and the Los Angeles Daily News among other dailies in Southern California.
It’s expected the Digital First will join two others that have offered financing in making a bid for Freedom at the auction sometime in coming months.
Tribune Publishing Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune, last week offered Freedom a $3 million short-term loan. Tribune countered a similar offer from Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund Silver Point Finance LLC, which came with a provision that calls for refinancing of its $19.5 million loan to Freedom that would essentially guarantee repayment.
Freedom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 1, announcing that investor-turned-Chief Executive Richard Mirman and Chairman Eric Spitz will likely join real estate developer Mike Harrah, the largest commercial property owner in Santa Ana, in an effort to buy the media company.
