Biotech billionaire buys LA Times for $500m

Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, a California biotech billionaire and a minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, is buying the Los Angeles Times from Chicago-based Tronc Inc for $500 million.

Soon-Shiong, a 65-year-old doctor turned entrepreneur who was born in South Africa to Chinese parents, is the founder and CEO of NantHealth, based in Culver City, California.

He is a major shareholder of the Times’ former parent company, Tronc, which also owns the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida SunSentinel, Baltimore Sun and the New York Daily News.

As part of the deal, SoonShiong also will get The Times’ sister newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, and will assume $90 million in pension liabilities. The sale is expected to close in April.

The sale of the Times comes after the newspaper has gone through three editors in six months, its publisher placed on unpaid leave during a sexual harassment investigation, and an overwhelming vote by the newspaper’s staff to unionize the newsroom.

A former surgeon at the University of California, Los Angeles, Soon-Shiong has been described by Forbes as “America’s richest doctor”, and one who has said his goal is to cure cancer in his lifetime. Forbes estimates his worth at $7.8 billion.

He was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to Chinese immigrant parents who fled China during the Japanese occupation in World War II. His parents were originally from Toisan in Guangdong province.

He joined UCLA Medical School in 1983 as an assistant professor in the gastrointestinal surgery division. He later became director of UCLA’s pancreas transplant program.

After developing a method for treating diabetes by transplanting insulin-producing cells into a patient’s pancreas, SoonShiong left UCLA and founded his own medical research firm in 1991.

His wealth came from companies he founded to make blockbuster treatments for breast cancer and diabetes. He sold two of his biotech companies for nearly $9.1 billion.