I. WORSE THAN A SHAM

Plaintiff will present at trial the following evidence, which has surfaced only recently in discovery and was previously unknown to plaintiff:

On July 28, 1999, its purchase of The Chronicle imminent, Hearst met with San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to seek his support for the acquisition. Mayor Brown advised Hearst that if it wished to avoid problems with the City over The Chronicle acquisition, Hearst ought to settle litigation then pending with the Fang family.

Willie then reflected that it was really not smart for us to have something like this predatory pricing case "hanging around" when we’re trying to get something big done like an acquisition or merger. He observed that funny undesired consequences often ripple from something like this, even if one thing has nothing directly to do with the other.

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Willie seems like a friend in all this, but I am forewarned and often reminded that he’s a lot closer to the Fangs than he is to us. [PX 99.]