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Knight Ridder Papers For Sale

There is a good chance that the nation?s second-largest newspaper group could be sold sometime next year. Two major newspaper companies - Gannett and McClatchy - and a handful of private equity firms have expressed interest in buying San Jose-based Knight Ridder. A source familiar with the bidding process also confirmed that MediaNews, a Denver-based newspaper company, was said to be interested in joining a bidding coalition but had not yet submitted its own bid.

Knight Ridder, which owns 32 daily newspapers including the Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News, asked potential buyers to submit formal "expressions of interest" by Friday. While the number of parties interested exceeded the low expectations set by Wall Street, it remains unclear what value the bidders set on Knight Ridder.

On the private equity side, as expected, Knight Ridder received a joint bid from a trio of prominent firms -- Blackstone, Providence Equity and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Also expected to submit preliminary bids were Texas Pacific Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners and Spectrum Equity Partners. It was unclear Friday whether each of these firms was bidding separately or as part of a coalition.