The battle of the billionaires is finally over. Chicago real estate tycoon, Sam Zell, has reportedly overtaken his competitors, Burkle and Broad, gaining control of money-sinker Tribune Co. with a brilliant last-minute maneuver that involved "offering the board much, much more cash."

According to well-placed sources, the board favored Zell's bid because:

• Zell's checks will clear faster than Ron "Bounce" Burkle's
• Zell is from Chicago, which is nowhere near the scandal-ridden LA Times
• Zell has never, ever had sex with Brian Grazer's publicist.

Here's how it all went down!

Last week, Mr. Zell's bid of $33 a share, which he already increased once, had been $1 below the Burkle-Broad bid, which is valued at about $8.1 billion. On Friday afternoon, Tribune executives told Mr. Zell that he would have to offer them more money if he wanted to buy the company, the people said; Mr. Zell came back with a new bid of close to $34 a share.

…Mr. Zell, who has said his sole interest in buying Tribune is economic, not editorial, has made billions in real estate and has been known to walk away from deals that he thought were too expensive.

That said, only time will tell whether Zell's current investment pays off. Because shrewd financier that he is, everyone makes mistakes—a point Zell just reaffirmed by dropping $8 billion on the Tribune.