Merrill Lynch and Citigroup have been brought on to help make recommendations to the board of the Chicago-based company - and parent of the LAT. The advisers, along with Tribune management, will present their ideas to an independent committee, which will then make its recommendations to the board. That's a lot to do in the three months they've been given. "In order to maximize shareholder value, our initial focus is determining the best strategic alternatives for the company and its publishing and broadcast groups as a whole, before evaluating strategic alternatives for individual business units," said Tribune CEO Dennis FitzSimons. Oh, and forget about boardroom leaks on this one; a week after the board agreed to consider some big-time changes - spinoff, going private, asset sales or some or all of the above - there's not much consensus on how things might play out. But lots of rumors.

*Old pals: As noted by the NYT's Andrew Ross Sorkin in DealBook, Merrill and Citi were part of a group that arranged the loans last June for Tribune's stock buyback. That's what ticked off the Chandlers, if you recall.