Bain Capital

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- With at least two bids on the table, Knight Ridder's board of directors is scheduled to meet tomorrow in New York to weigh offers in the possible sale of the newspaper company. A source familiar with the company said yesterday that the situation is "still fluid." Knight Ridder, the nation's second-largest newspaper company and owner of the San Jose Mercury News, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Miami Herald, offered itself for sale under pressure from its three largest shareholders who were unhappy with its stock performance.

WASHINGTON -- Vonage Holdings Corp., unprofitable since it began offering Internet phone service four years ago, is seeking $563.4 million in an initial public offering to boost advertising and fend off new competitors. Vonage will sell 31.3 million shares, or 20 percent of its stock, for $16 to $18 each, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The sale would value Vonage at about $2.82 billion. The money will allow Vonage to continue a marketing campaign as competition increases from cable and telephone companies.

For close observers of MD Gov. Martin O'Malley, the most interesting part of his 17 minute segment this morning on Meet the Press came at the end. Host David Gregory revealed there was "a reason" that he asked both O'Malley and Newt Gingrich, a failed presidential candidate, to be guests on the show. Given the "buzz" that O'Malley has his eye on the White House, what advice, Gregory asked, could Gingrich provide Maryland's governor about running for president in 2016? Gingrich had a snappy reply: "Raise a lot of money.

Two days after Barclays, the British bank, failed to reach a deal that would have salvaged Lehman Brothers, it moved closer to its prize yesterday, striking a tentative agreement to buy the broken investment firm's core capital markets businesses for about $2 billion - far less than Lehman had hoped for. The accord, announced to Lehman employees yesterday afternoon, could save 8,000 to 10,000 Lehman jobs and allow Robert E. Diamond Jr., the president of...

A batch of low bids for Tribune Co. has prompted the Chicago media company to open itself to offers for its individual business units, which include the Los Angeles Times, KTLA Channel 5 and the Chicago Cubs. A deadline Friday for non-binding preliminary offers resulted in a handful of bids at about the company's current share price, two sources familiar with the process said. That led Tribune's investment bankers to begin phoning individuals who previously expressed interest in the company's 11 daily newspapers and other holdings, to say the company would now entertain bids on those properties.

NEW YORK -- A takeover bid for Tribune Co. by its biggest shareholder would increase the chances that the publisher of the Los Angeles Times and owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team eventually will be split up. Theodore G. Venetoulis, a publisher leading a group of local investors interested in buying The Sun in Baltimore from Tribune, said he is encouraged by reports in The New York Times that the Chandler family might join private equity firms to...

Sale to MidAmerican is on track, CEG says Constellation Energy Group affirmed yesterday that its sale to Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. is on track. MidAmerican Chief Executive Gregory Abel said the company expects to complete its due diligence within the 14-day review period, which expires Friday. Abel said "based on information reviewed to date, we have not identified any issues." The update from the two companies was released after SparkSpread.com's report - later retracted - said Constellation may file for bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg News.

LONDON - Reed Elsevier PLC, the world's largest publisher of scientific journals, agreed yesterday to buy Harcourt General Inc. for $5.65 billion in cash and assumed debt and then sell a big part of the U.S. textbook publisher to Thomson Corp. of Canada. Reed Elsevier will pay $59 a share for Harcourt, the largest publisher of medical textbooks and journals, or 13 percent more than its closing share price Thursday. It also will take over $1.2 billion of Harcourt's debt. Thomson will pay $2.06 billion for Harcourt's college textbook publishing and some professional training units.

MIAMI -- For the first time in Burger King's 52-year history, the public will be able to own a piece of the fast-food institution. Burger King announced yesterday that it intends to sell shares in an initial public offering that would make the restaurant chain among the 10 largest public companies in Florida. The offering marks a major milestone in the company's evolution from the days when founders James W. McLamore and David Edgerton sold 18-cent hamburgers and milkshakes. As a public company, Burger King will have better access to capital to help fight the war against its rivals McDonald's and Wendy's.

With the selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney forces the Democrats to produce a budget of their own. It's too hot of a topic not to. They can't bury their collective heads in the sand any longer, they have to cough it up. We all know President Barack Obama doesn't like to do the figures, but now he's going to have to. This forces his hand. My tea party group is thrilled with the selection of Mr. Ryan. We love people who can crunch the numbers. Many of us now believe this election is a showdown of the Obama vision versus the Ryan vision.