Tronc, the parent of the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune, is close to a deal to sell both papers to billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., for a reported $500 million, according to numerous reports.

The story was first reported by the Washington Post.

Soon-Shiong, the second-largest shareholder in Tronc, whose holdings include the Chicago Tribune and the money-draining New York Daily News, was once an ally of Tronc Chairman Michael Ferro, but more recently the two have feuded.

The likely sale comes at a time of upheaval for the LA paper as its publisher remains suspended pending a sexual harassment investigation and its just-installed editor-in-chief, Jim Kirk, is its third leader in less than a year.

Journalists at the LA Times recently voted to unionize for the first time in the paper’s 137-year history.