Vice Media to be bought out of bankruptcy by Fortress Investment Group: Reports
Fortress Investment Group is leading a group that has reportedly bid $225 million to buy Vice Media out of bankruptcy, The New York Times reported early Thursday.
Fortress, Vice’s largest secured creditor, joined other lenders, including Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, with a binding bid to take over the company at the time of the bankruptcy filing last month.
A bankruptcy judge must approve the agreement; The Times reported that several other bids were made for Vice, with only Fortress’ package “qualifying.”
Vice Media told Yahoo Finance that it had no comment on the report at this time.
Vice, which filed for bankruptcy on May 15, was once seen as a crown jewel in the fast-paced digital media sector as newspapers declined and investors looked for new types of content to lure viewers.
The company quickly saw notable investments from media powerhouses including A&E Networks, 21st Century Fox and Disney ( DIS ), which invested a reported $400 million in 2015 at a valuation of between $4 billion and $4.5 billion, but took a $157 million writedown on the original investment just one year later.
Ahead of the bankruptcy filing, Vice had shut down its flagship Vice News Tonight program and cut 100 jobs in April. Earlier reports from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal revealed that stalled growth, combined with an inability to sell itself, contributed to the media giant’s demise.
According to the Journal, the company was seeking a valuation of just $1.5 billion in December 2022 — a steep drop from the $5.7 billion valuation it received after a funding round in 2017. Vice was on track to miss its full-year revenue target by about 100 million dollars, further complicating any potential sale, the Journal reported.
The bankruptcy filing revealed that the company had assets and liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion.
The news comes amid continued upheaval in the media sector as companies from BuzzFeed ( BZFD ) to Insider grapple with high costs, layoffs and falling valuations.
Buzzfeed shut down its news division as part of wider company layoffs at the end of April, while Insider previously confirmed it would lay off 10% of its workforce, citing “the same economic headwinds as others in our industry”.
Late last year, CNN went through a round of layoffs when parent company Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ) looked set to cut $4 billion in costs over the coming years.
Alexandra Canal is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
