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(Adds Ricketts no comment) Stocks Mergers & Acquisitions Bonds Funds News ETFs News Media Cuba By Ben Klayman CHICAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The winner in the long-awaitedsale of the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team will beidentified this week, three sources close to the process saidon Tuesday. "Bidders have been told a single party to negotiate withwill be chosen this week," said one source, who asked not to beidentified because the sale has not closed. Tribune Co, which owns the Cubs and filed for bankruptcyprotection last month, declined to comment. Cubs Chairman CraneKenney said in December that he expected a sale by springtraining, which starts in February.

While the Cubs are not part of the bankruptcy filing,analysts expect the court to weigh in on the sale, which theyestimate could attract bids of around $1 billion, the most everpaid for a U.S sports franchise. Bidders are anxious to take control of the team, which hasnot won a World Series title since 1908 but is nationallyrecognized due to its history as a lovable losers and itsnational exposure on cable television. The final three bidding groups include Tom Ricketts, chiefexecutive of Chicago investment bank Incapital LLC and the sonof the founder of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp (AMTD.O); MarcUtay, a managing partner with New York-based private equityfirm Clarion Capital Partners LLC; and Chicago real estateexecutive Hersh Klaff. Theowner of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times newspapersput the Cubs on the block in April 2007, when Tribune announcedit would be bought for $8.2 billion by a group led by realestate magnate Sam Zell But Tribune has missed deadlines before. It had hoped topick a winner by the end of 2008 for the sale of the Cubs;Wrigley Field, where the Cubs play; and a stake in a regionalsports cable TV network. After that, 75 percent of Major League Baseball's teamowners would have to approve a change in ownership.

"I never thought it conceivable that it would be hard tospend a billion dollars on a sports team," Cuban wrote "Inthis case it was "Then the credit crisis hit and hit hard," he added. I could not see any scenariowhere the Cubs were worth anywhere near the numbers that hadbeen discussed in the media." (Additional reporting by Robert MacMillan in New York; Editingby Matthew Lewis and Gerald E. McCormick) Stocks Mergers & Acquisitions Bonds Funds News ETFs News Media Cuba. GREENBELT, Md., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ An ongoing X-ray surveyundertaken by NASA's Swift spacecraft is revealing differences between nearbyactive galaxies and those located about halfway across the universe.Understanding these differences will help clarify the relationship between agalaxy and its central black hole.