Bidding for FNN Goes Right Down to the Wire : Cable TV: A judge is expected to decide today between two final sweetened offers.

The two contenders vying to acquire ailing Financial News Network Inc. presented their final sweetened bids on Tuesday, and the bankruptcy judge overseeing the cable network’s sale said he will likely select the winner in the bitter three-month contest today.

A partnership consisting of Dow Jones & Co. and Westinghouse Broadcasting Co., which had offered $115 million in cash in March, offered $125 million in cash plus a share of future FNN revenues that the partnership valued at $32.8 million.

General Electric Co.’s Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC), whose most recent bid was also $115 million in cash, first offered $135 million, then $140 million in cash.

Both bidders said they would assume $9.3 million in FNN liabilities.

“It is a very close call,” said Ronald Orr, an attorney for FNN who urged U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Francis G. Conrad to sell the network to the Dow Jones partnership.

But Kenneth Eckstein, representing FNN’s creditors, backed CNBC’s all-cash bid as “the highest and best offer” that provides “greater value to the estate.”

Judge Conrad’s task in selecting the winner will be complicated by antitrust considerations. Attorneys general in Pennsylvania and Illinois filed suit Tuesday to block an FNN sale to CNBC.

Another factor he will have to consider is that an earlier acquisition contract between CNBC and FNN requires FNN to pay a “break-up” fee and expenses totaling about $8.2 million to CNBC if FNN is acquired by someone else.

The competing media giants made their bids at a daylong, tension-filled hearing at which CNBC attorney Bruce Zirinsky ridiculed the contingent portion of the Dow Jones/Westinghouse bid as “funny money.”

But Donald Mitzner, president of Westinghouse’s Group W Satellite Communications unit, strongly defended the non-cash portion of the bid, arguing that it would guarantee FNN’s creditors $10 million plus “unlimited upside.”

“Let’s see what happens tomorrow,” said Peter Kann, chairman and chief executive of Dow Jones, when he left the courtroom as the hearing adjourned shortly after 7 p.m.

“We’re just going to have to wait and see,” added Robert C. Wright, the GE executive who is president of NBC. Earlier, Wright said only half-jokingly that the day’s courtroom drama would itself have made excellent television fare.

After Judge Conrad closed the bidding at 11:20 a.m., the balance of the hearing was largely devoted to what the judge called an “eye glazing” examination of financial and rating projections for FNN.

In order to demonstrate that the contingent portion of its bid had value, the Dow Jones/Westinghouse partnership attempted to paint a rosy picture of FNN’s future under their management.

“We bring substantial resources that are already bought and paid for,” testified Dow Jones Senior Vice President and Counsel Peter Skinner, citing Dow Jones’ worldwide news-gathering operations and Group W’s marketing and affiliate relations groups.

Mitzner argued that FNN’s first-quarter ratings woes stemmed from its lack of promotion and marketing expenditures and the Gulf War, which diverted viewers to Cable News Network.

Mitzner said the partnership would invest $6 million in marketing and promoting the network if its bid is selected. In addition, he said, FNN’s revenues could be enhanced with pay-per-view operations, radio syndication and international syndication.

Dillon, Read & Co. Managing Director George A. Wiegers, testifying on behalf of Dow Jones, said even small increases in viewership would lead to huge increases in revenue. “That’s why these three companies are in the courtroom vying to buy it,” he said.

CNBC’s case consisted largely of attempting to deflate the Dow Jones/Westinghouse predictions. If the outlook for FNN is so great and the payout of future revenue will indeed be worth what Dow Jones says it will, “why play with funny money?” demanded Zirinsky.

Skinner said the partnership eschewed an all-cash offer because “it is our investment philosophy that we should pay fair value, not blue sky.”

In addition to saying he would decide on the winner this week, Judge Conrad said he will hold a hearing on the Illinois attorney general’s antitrust suit on Friday. Both the Illinois and Pennsylvania suits contend that CNBC’s purchase of FNN would lead to a monopoly in continuous cable financial news operations, raising advertising and subscriber fees.