MediaFile is introducing a new daily column that aims to start each morning with a handful of developing stories that caught our eye. It could be anything from the day’s biggest deals to financing for a new Silicon Valley firm that aims to destroy business models overnight. We do this in-house already and figured it would be just as helpful to you as it is to us. Let us know how we can make it better.

Can he pull it off? That’s the question everyone’s asking real-estate magnate Sam Zell (pictured left), whose $8.2 billion leveraged buyout of newspaper publisher Tribune Co. could be endangered by the tightening credit market.

Shareholders gathering at Tribune’s annual meeting in Chicago on Tuesday are expected to approve the deal. But with the subprime mortgage meltdown putting the skids on debt-financed transactions and a stock that’s traded well below the deal’s $34 per share price, plenty are betting the deal won’t get done — at least not on the current terms. Zell’s committed, for now. Tribune shares traded at $24.46 last Tuesday, its lowest level in nine years.

One source told Reuters last week there were no known talks between Zell and Tribune over the terms of the deal … yet.
New York Times
Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Keep an eye on:

• Sony’s “Superbad” drop-kicked “Rush Hour 3″ to take the No. 1 spot at the U.S. box office this weekend, proving you can be a somebody even if you’re a nobody in Hollywood. I haven’t laughed as hard since “Old School.” (Reuters)
• Google discloses stake in Chinese social networking site Tianya.cn. (Reuters)
• Skype’s back! Reboots on PCs running Skype across the globe after receiving a routine software patch takes down network. (Skype blog)
• Building-B, a tech firm keen on building a set top box that combines on-demand HDTV and Internet video, lands $17.5 million. (paidcontent.org) (B&C) (press release)
• Aniboom, a Web site with more than 2500 animators who create and share their clips, is launching a channel on YouTube with an eye to discovering the next “South Park”. (Reuters)