Alden Global Capital’s likely takeover of The Hartford Courant was discussed March 18 as a legislative committee considered a bill that would prohibit the paper’s owners from taking on debt or issuing dividends that are “not in the public interest,” the News-Times (Danbury) reported.
The bill was filed by Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown. The legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee held the hearing.
The state’s attorney general would be allowed to sue if The Hartford Courant Company “or its successors incur any debt or issue any dividend that is not in the public interest,” the bill says, the Connecticut Post (Bridgeport) reports.
The bill has roots in a business charter the General Assembly granted the paper in 1887, which has been revised a number of times, said the News-Times.
“So there is a history of the legislature passing special acts about the corporate structure of the parent company of The Hartford Courant,” Lesser said, according to the News-Times.
Tribune Publishing owns the paper. Alden is Tribune Publishing’s biggest shareholder and has struck a $630 million deal to buy Tribune Publishing.
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