U-T San Diego chief executive John Lynch tells The Boston Globe’s Beth Healy his company was the “highest bidder” among the groups buying to buy the paper. Red Sox owner John Henry won out.
“I am left wondering whether the Times was influenced by the company’s experience working with Henry when it owned a minority stake in the Red Sox,” Poynter’s Rick Edmonds wrote Saturday. Henry was able to pay cash, Healy reports.
“It was clear they didn’t want to sell to us, or wanted to sell to Henry,” Lynch told Healy in an email. He said he thought on Friday his group still had a shot.
Lynch said his group was misled by the Times Co. and that it intends to seek repayment for the money it spent preparing its bid.
“The Times is able to sell to whomever they wish. That’s the way America works and we are fine with that,’’ Lynch said in his e-mail. However, he added, “we are confident that we will be reimbursed for our expenses as a result of the articulated process not being followed.”
“We decline to comment,” Times Co. spokesperson Abbe Serphos told Poynter in an email.
More on Boston Globe sale: Rick Edmonds’ thoughts on the deal | Al Tompkins on the conflicts Henry’s ownership might present for sports journalists
