After 3-½ months, founder and CEO Jeff Smulyan gives up on trying to reconcile the positions of a block of the company’s preferred shareholders and his own backer, Alden Global Capital. Emmis CFO Patrick Walsh tells the Indianapolis Business Journal the Smulyan team is “bitterly disappointed.” Walsh says “we thought had a deal, and it’s unfortunate that [backer Alden Global Capital] backed away from the deal.” Four years ago, Smulyan also tried to take Emmis public, at $15.25 per share of its common stock. That eventually was called off and then there was a large special dividend to shareholders. This year’s offer, announced May 25, was for $2.40 a share for the common stock, and an exchange of new Emmis debt for the preferred stock. That proved to be the stumbling block, this time, as the “preferreds” held out for a better deal, which Alden declined to back. Emmis remains a public company.