Oprah Winfrey is selling Harpo Studios in Chicago to a developer, but the studio will remain on the property for another two years.
Winfrey filmed "The Oprah Winfrey Show" at the studio from 1990 to 2011, when she ended the talk show to start the Oprah Winfrey Network on cable.
"We have entered into a purchasing agreement with Sterling Bay for the four-building Harpo Studios campus in Chicago's West Loop," Harpo told Crain's Chicago Business (http://bit.ly/1iRqccg ) in a statement. "We expect the transaction to be closed in 30 days. The property will be leased back to Harpo for two years and the studio will continue to produce programming for OWN."
About 200 people work at the 3.5-acre campus, which will sell for about $32 million, Crain's reported Sunday. Harpo said it expects to close the transaction in 30 days.
Winfrey first came to Chicago in 1984 to WLS-TV's morning talk show, "A.M. Chicago." A month later, the show was No. 1 in the market and renamed "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 1985.
Winfrey moved to Harpo Studios in 1990 and is credited with transforming the once-gritty industrial area to a neighborhood filled with families and trendy restaurants.
In 2011, then-Chicago Mayor Richard Daley named the street outside Harpo Studios "Oprah Winfrey Way."
Ubisoft shares jump following reports of Tencent, Guillemot family considering buyout
Shares of Ubisoft jumped more than 30% Friday, following reports that Tencent and the Guillemot family are considering a buyout of the video game maker.
Bloomberg news reported that Tencent and Guillemot family — minority stakeholders in Ubisoft — have been discussing ways to stabilize the company after it lost more than half its market value this year. Shares surged 33.5% to about $15.57 Friday, according to FactSet.
Ubisoft declined to comment. Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
France-based Ubisoft is the publisher behind the well-known franchise "Assassin's Creed." Ubisoft's shares fell last month to their lowest point in more than a decade after its latest title "Star Wars Outlaws" underperformed and the company announced that it would delay the latest "Assassin's Creed" game.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's CEO, said in a statement last week that the company's "second quarter performance fell short of our expectations."
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