(Bloomberg) — Vice Media LLC has filed for chapter and has reached an settlement to promote itself to collectors, a precipitous fall for the media upstart that was as soon as valued at $5.7 billion.
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The developments cap a tumultuous few months for the agency, which started instead journal in Montreal almost three many years in the past and captured the eye of younger viewers around the globe with documentary-style movies. He shared a 2020 Pulitzer Prize and a number of Emmy Awards for Vice Information Tonight.
Its fast decline underscores the challenges going through digital media corporations, which wrestle as advertisers minimize spending throughout an unsure economic system and shift advertising and marketing to expertise platforms from Fb and Google to TikTok.
The Brooklyn-based firm listed property and liabilities within the vary of greater than $500 million as much as $1 billion in a Chapter 11 petition filed within the Southern District of New York. In a separate assertion, Vice introduced that it has reached an settlement with collectors, together with Fortress Funding Group, Soros Fund Administration and Monroe Capital, to buy its property for $225 million and tackle vital liabilities. The deal, nonetheless, permits rival bidders to emerge.
“We may have new house owners, a simplified capital construction and the flexibility to function with out the legacy liabilities which were weighing down our enterprise,” stated Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, co-CEOs. “We hope to finish the sale course of within the subsequent two to 3 months.”
Learn extra: Vice ends flagship program, cuts jobs like on-line media removing
Fortress Credit score Corp. ranked among the many largest secured collectors, with claims totaling about $475 million, Monday’s submitting confirmed. Vice secured commitments for debtor financing held by its collectors, together with consent to make use of greater than $20 million in money to maintain its operations going for now.
Vice secured a $450 million funding from personal fairness agency TPG in 2017, which valued the corporate at $5.7 billion. The determine was alarming for a media upstart, particularly as a lot of his business friends struggled to show a revenue. Different buyers have included the Walt Disney Co. and Fox Corp.
Within the submitting, Vice estimated that it has greater than 5,000 collectors and would have funds to distribute to unsecured collectors.
His chapter submitting is a milestone for the digital media enviornment. In February, Vice stated that Nancy Dubuc could be leaving the corporate after 5 years as chief govt, after which on the finish of April, Vice shut down its important TV information present and laid off greater than 100 workers.
Vice Information Tonight started in 2016 as a newscast on HBO and earned reward for its protection of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. HBO ended that partnership in 2019. The present not too long ago aired on Vice TV, the corporate’s cable channel.
This yr, BuzzFeed Inc. shut down its information operation and on-line writer Insider Inc. stated it can minimize about 10% of its workers.
–With the help of Ameya Karve and Jeremy Hill.
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