Vice Media files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to facilitate sale
Vice Media Group, in style for web sites corresponding to Vice and Motherboard, filed for chapter safety on Monday to engineer its sale to a bunch of lenders, capping years of monetary difficulties and top-executive departures.
Vice mentioned that the lender consortium, which incorporates Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, will present about US$225 million within the type of a credit score bid for considerably the entire firm’s belongings and likewise assume important liabilities at closing.
Under a credit score bid, collectors can swap their secured debt, fairly than pay money, for the corporate’s belongings.
The firm listed each belongings and liabilities within the vary of US$500 million to $1 billion, based on a courtroom submitting.
Vice mentioned that it acquired commitments for debtor-in-possession financing from the lenders, in addition to consent to make use of greater than US$20 million in money, which it mentioned will probably be “more than sufficient” to fund its business all through the sale course of.
The chapter submitting comes amid a difficult interval for a number of expertise and media corporations, as they resort to downsizing in latest months attributable to a turbulent financial system and weak promoting market.
Vice was amongst a bunch of fast-rising digital media ventures that when commanded wealthy valuations as they courted millennial audiences. It rose to prominence alongside its co-founder, Shane Smith, who constructed his media empire from a single Canadian journal.
In April, the corporate mentioned it might cancel in style TV program “Vice News Tonight” as a part of a broader restructuring that may end in job cuts throughout the digital media agency’s world news business.
Last month, BuzzFeed Inc. mentioned it might shutter its news division, which was famend for its irreverent and probing protection, however finally succumbed to the challenges of its digital-first business mannequin.
(Reporting by Rahat Sandhu and Samrhitha Arunasalam in Bengaluru; enhancing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)
