Company News : Tribune Co. shareholders approve sale

Tribune Co. shareholders consented to the $8.2 billion buyout of the media conglomerate on Tuesday, an expected but noteworthy milestone in a drawn-out transaction that still awaits federal approval and billions of dollars in promised financing.

The shareholder meeting in Tribune Tower, the last scheduled for the 160-year-old company, was marked by unions’ complaints that employees of the soon-to-be employee-owned firm will have no formal role in running it. Some shareholders also voiced concerns about its ability to operate in a struggling newspaper industry under a mountain of debt.

But Tribune easily secured the backing of shareholders for the deal to take the company private under an employee stock ownership plan — a foregone conclusion since the $34-a-share transaction will pay them significantly more than the current value of the languishing stock.

Preliminary results indicated 97 percent of those casting votes, representing a majority of shares, had approved the April 1 deal led by billionaire Sam Zell.

“Continental Airlines Inc. has decided to opt out of its deal for its name to appear on the home of the NBA’s New Jersey Nets and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, the arena’s owner said Tuesday.

The Meadowlands building has been called Continental Airlines Arena for 12 years, but the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority said it is hunting for a new company to put its name on what is now Continental Airlines Arena.

A spokesman for Houston-based Continental, which has a major presence at Newark Liberty International Airport, said an option in its contract allows it to opt out following a major change.

“U.S. giant Boeing Co. and Russian titanium producer OAO VSMPO-Avisma have signed an agreement creating a joint venture to make titanium forgings for use in the production of the U.S. giant’s 787 Dreamliner jet, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday.

Announcements about the deal came on the first day of Russia’s International Aviation and Space Show outside Moscow, Interfax and ITAR-Tass reported.

The company. a 50-50 joint venture called Ural Boeing manufacturing, will be based in Verkhnaya Salda in the Ural Mountains, the reports said. ITAR-Tass quoted Boeing’s president in Russia, Sergei Kravchenko, as saying it would start operating this year.

Russian flag carrier Aeroflot signed a deal with Boeing in June to acquire 22 Dreamliners, with deliveries slated to start in 2014.