sam zell

Television executive Peter Liguori was named the new chief executive of Tribune Co. Thursday, taking the reins of the reorganized Chicago-based media company weeks after its emergence from bankruptcy.

How an era of risky finance rocked one of Chicago's oldest companies

Years later, the big winners in Tribune Co.'s Chapter 11 case are the investment firms that profit from the boom-and-bust cycles of Wall Street.

In summer 2007, a complicated deal to buy Tribune Co. and take it private reflected all the dangers of an easy-money era when caution was pushed aside.

After spending more than four years embroiled in a contentious Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, the reorganized Tribune Co. will emerge Monday under new owners and a newly appointed board, freed from its massive debt and facing an uncertain future, officials said.

The federal judge in Tribune Co.'s long-running bankruptcy case said in a memorandum Friday that he would approve a reorganization plan proposed by the company and its largest creditors, overruling objections brought by numerous parties.