Billionaire Samuel Zell is discussing a deal to sell the Los Angeles Times to entertainment mogul David Geffen following the approval of his $13.2 billion bid for the Tribune Co.

Billionaire Samuel Zell is discussing a deal to sell the Los Angeles Times to entertainment mogul David Geffen following the approval of his $13.2 billion bid for the Tribune Co.

Geffen's original $2 billion offer for the Times was turned down in November. Tribune rejected Geffen's bid for the Times because the company did not want to sell off individual media properties due to high taxes associated with a piecemeal sale.

Zell has offered $34 per share for the company, for a total of $8.2 billion, but only $315 million of that is his money. The remainder of the investment would be debt, and Zell would also have to take on $5 billion in existing Tribune debt, pushing the total debt to about $13 billion.

Tribune has already said it will sell the Chicago Cubs baseball club to pay down debt, but analysts said the sale would raise $700 million at most, which could force Tribune to sell other assets or take partners in joint ventures.

Meanwhile, a group of Baltimore businessmen remains interested in buying the Baltimore Sun, which is valued by analysts at about $500 million.

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