Private equity group skips Tribune auction

Chicago Tribune reports that a consortium of Madison Dearborn Partners, Apollo Management and Providence Equity Partners could not agree on valuation and thus did not submit a firm bid. A source told the paper that the group would still like to bid on Tribune, but that the offer would be below the company's share price, which closed today at $30.34. The same source said there's been no bid from the Chandler family, though there was some thought to a deal that would split up the newspapers and broadcast operations. No word about the Broad/Burkle interest.