It’s Over: Gerry Lenfest Takes Control of Inky

“Businessman and philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest took control of The Inquirer and its parent company Wednesday with the formal closing of a May 27th auction sale of the property for $88 million,” the Inquirer reports.

The closing ends a bizarre few months of ownership squabbling and shifting that went more or less like this:

• The old majority ownership faction, led by George Norcross, fired Inky editor Bill Marimow.

• The minority ownership faction, led by Lenfest and the late Lewis Katz, sued to restore Marimow to power.

• They won.

• But then the two sides grappled for the control of the papers.

• Resulting in the auction two weeks ago, in which Katz and Lenfest won — probably accidentally — control of the papers.

• A week later, Lewis Katz died in a plane crash in Massachusetts. His shares in the newspaper company passed to his son, Drew.

• Drew on Tuesday announced he was selling those shares to Lenfest.

• Which occurred today, before the closing of the $88 million sale.

It’s all over now, right? No more weird twists and turns?