Cubs Sale Update

As reported in the Tribune today, the number of bidders is down to five, including one whose name was not previously known:

The Chicago Tribune has learned that one of the 10 bidders was Houston businessman James Crane, whose bid had been secret until now. A highly placed baseball source said that Crane's bid is still alive. Crane could not be reached for comment.

Crane is the former chief executive of EGL Inc., an air freight and logistics company he founded in 1984. He lost control of the company last year in a takeover battle with New York private-equity giant Apollo Management LP.

Don't know anything about this guy. The other four are Mark Cuban, the Ricketts family of Omaha, a group led by Fred Malek and Michael Tokarz, and Sports Acquisition Group of New York, whose chairman, Andrew Murstein, recently said:

"We consider ourselves a free agent and feel whichever group we join, if any, will be in a very good position to win," said Murstein, who runs a New York investment firm. He added that the company has been approached by three other bidders but declined to name them.

But, any speculation on who is "leading" is probaby misleading, because:

Would-be buyers had to sign confidentiality agreements with Major League Baseball and Tribune Co. as a condition of participating in the auction.

We, as always, await further developments.