40% of St. Petersburg Times Voting Stock : Bass Buys Large Stake in Florida Paper

The Robert M. Bass Group has bought 40% of the voting stock in the parent company of Florida’s 104-year-old St. Petersburg Times, officials for the two firms said Thursday.

The Bass group of Texas purchased 200 of 500 voting shares in the Times Publishing Co., said Andrew Barnes, chief executive, president and editor.

A spokesman for the Bass Group also confirmed the purchase.

Robert Bass is one of four Bass brothers of Ft. Worth whose empire Forbes Magazine valued at $6 billion before last year’s stock market crash.

“The 200 shares of Eleanor Poynter Jamison on her death passed to her daughters, who have sold them now to the Texas company,” Barnes said.

“It basically means nothing,” said Barnes, adding that the transaction represents a minority stake--6% of the total 3,500 shares of stock and 40% of the 500 voting shares.

“It is a privately held company in which the majority wins,” he said, adding that as chief executive he controls the majority. “We have every intention of going on without missing a beat.”

Several New Acquisitions

Barnes, 49, took control at the Times on Monday. He added chief executive to his title of editor and president of the Times Publishing Co. upon the retirement of Eugene Patterson after a decade at the helm.

The company’s line of succession was established by the late Nelson Poynter, the last individual owner of the newspaper. It allowed Patterson, 65, to pick his successor.

The Bass group did not say what its interest in purchasing the Times stake was, but sources familiar with the deal indicated that it was for investment purposes only.

The Bass group has been active in corporate acquisitions lately including the federally assisted purchase of American Savings & Loan Assn., a troubled Irvine-based thrift.

In the publishing field, Bass acquired Bell & Howell Co. of Skokie, Ill., in May. He recently abandoned a bid to buy Macmillan Inc., another publishing company.

The sale of Times’ stock was completed Aug. 25, according to Tampa attorney Merritt A. Gardner, who represented the sellers, sisters Anne Poynter Jamison Parker and Mary Alice Jamison Griffin.

“The primary reason for the sale was the estate tax liability as a result of their mother’s death,” Gardner said.

He would not disclose the purchase price.

In the mid-1970s, Poynter formed what is known today as the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit organization to train journalists that controls the publishing concern through a holding company.

The publishing company puts out the newspaper, which is Florida’s second-largest, Congressional Quarterly and the magazine, Florida Trend.