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I figured the deal was as good as done, and I returned to Ann Arbor and identified five houses that were all in the same price range for what I was g… - Sam Zell
" "I figured the deal was as good as done, and I returned to Ann Arbor and identified five houses that were all in the same price range for what I was going to pay for the land, about $32,000 to $34,000. These five houses were beautiful — every one of them was three times better than what Mrs. D lived in. One day I drove her around to see them. She walked through each one but never said a word. I couldn’t get any response at all. At the end of the day, I drove her back home. As we neared the corner by her house, we saw a man swaying and holding onto a lamppost. I pointed him out, and Mrs. D said, “Oh, that’s my brother. He lives with us and visits the bars every night. That’s why I don’t like any of the houses we went to see — because he can’t drive; he has to be within at least eight blocks of the downtown bars because he goes there every night, gets drunk, and then walks home.” That’s what we call the major unknown factor. “No problem,” I said to Mrs. D, for the first of many times.
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Additional quotes by Sam Zell
This bit of hyperbole revealed a very important fact: At its heart, grave dancing was an opportunity to resurrect those assets deserving of a fresh start. It was a bet on my ability to affect a turnaround. And the low entry price paid for the risk I was taking to do it. Grave dancing involves confidence, optimism, conviction, and no small amount of courage. All the opportunity in the world means nothing if you don’t actually pull the trigger.
Like many other going-private LBOs, our deal involved significant leverage. But ours had one big difference. If we succeeded in growing Tribune, many people would benefit, including, first and foremost, the employees. The ESOP would enable employees to participate in the upside. The majority of any increase in the value of the company’s stock would accrue to the ESOP and ultimately to employees through their ESOP accounts. So employees would be highly motivated to succeed. That sounded great to me. Everyone would have skin in the game. Including me. It would be the single largest personal investment in my career.
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