A California health-care tycoon stunned staffers at The Los Angeles Times on Friday, telling him he planned to move their newsroom to the city’s industrial outskirts — despite the fact he hasn’t closed a deal to buy the company yet.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong — a local billionaire who is in talks to buy the LA Times and San Diego Union-Tribune for $500 million — told hundreds of journalists that they will be moving from their longtime headquarters, located in an art deco building in downtown Los Angeles, to El Segundo, Calif., an enclave south of Los Angeles International Airport about 20 miles away.

The surprise Friday morning announcement — made by Dr. Soon-Shiong at a rented space inside the LA Times’ downtown headquarters — blindsided Tronc, the publishing giant that currently owns The Los Angeles Times, as well as other major US newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News.

“We did not give him permission to speak,” a Tronc spokesman said Friday.

Dr. Soon-Shiong declined to comment.

The Post reported exclusively on Thursday that Dr. Soon-Shiong’s negotiations to complete his $500 million buyout of The Los Angeles Times from Tronc have lately appeared to stall.

While Dr. Soon-Shiong got antitrust clearance to complete the signed deal on March 5, he had remained largely silent since then, provoking speculation that he might be looking to wiggle out of the deal or renegotiate the price.

Asked at the town hall meeting why the transaction hadn’t closed, Dr. Soon-Shiong said he was still negotiating a complex deal to untangle the LA Times from Tronc’s operations, a source said.
He was also asked what would happen when the paper’s lease for its headquarters on Times Mirror Square expires June 30.

That’s when Dr. Soon-Shiong unleashed the bombshell that they would be moving to El Segundo, adding that he had no choice as the landlord is demanding $1 million a month to extend the lease.
Tronc declined comment on whether it also was weighing a move to El Segundo.

The suitor appeared before a sign with The Los Angeles Times logo and the slogan, “Speaking Truth to Power Since 1851.”

To add to the intrigue on Friday, Tronc’s biggest shareholder, its former chairman Michael Ferro, said after the market closed that he sold all his stock in the company to McCormick Media for $209 million. At $23 a share, it is a 35 percent premium over its Friday closing price of $17.15.

That sparked speculation that McCormick Media — an investment firm owned by the family that once owned the Chicago Tribune — is eyeing an acquisition of Tronc.

The Post reported exclusively Thursday that Apollo Global Management and at least one media company were circling Tronc for a potential buyout.