Times Mirror Cautious on Plans for Media Purchases

Times Mirror Co. is unlikely to emerge as high bidder for media properties coming on the market in the near future because management believes that the current merger “frenzy” may have temporarily inflated prices, shareholders were told Wednesday at the Los Angeles-based company’s annual meeting.

Robert F. Erburu, president and chief executive, told shareholders that several recent media mergers have involved prices that were “extraordinarily high and far exceeded historical valuations. . . . It may be that we are witnessing a fundamental adjustment in values, or we may be passing through a period of frenzy which will be followed by a readjustment.

“While we remain active in reviewing opportunities to bring into the Times Mirror family quality enterprises . . . it is unlikely that we will be high bidders at current levels,” Erburu said.

Otis Chandler, Times Mirror chairman and editor-in-chief, also said the company is giving “serious consideration” to adopting measures to protect the company from a hostile takeover attempt. Several other large media companies, such as Knight-Ridder and Gannett, have recently changed their bylaws to thwart takeovers.

Chandler said he thought it inappropriate to disclose the measures under consideration. He noted, however, that the company, which owns the Los Angeles Times and several other newspapers, is insulated from an unfriendly takeover because corporate insiders own a large amount of the stock.

Chandler family members and corporate officers control, directly or indirectly, about 32.3% of Times Mirror stock, according to the company’s proxy statement.

The meeting also marked Chandler’s last as chairman. He will become chairman of the board’s executive committee in January, and his title as editor-in-chief will cease to exist. Erburu will succeed Chandler as chairman while remaining chief executive.

Chandler, great-grandson of Times Mirror founder Harrison Gray Otis, took the occasion to reflect on the role that newspapers play in the country, calling them “a genuine expression of what our society is all about.”

“Because we take snapshots of today, and because snapshots are, in their very nature, candid, we are not always popular, we newspaper people,” Chandler said.

“The temptation of our governors is far greater today than it was . . . to place constraints on that freedom that is so necessary to all of us who are signatories to the social contract.”

He said that, during his association with the company and The Times, “I have regarded myself as a newspaperman. I am extremely proud to have been one . . . and I can assure you it is a title I will not discard.”