Vice was valued at $5.7 billion just six years ago, eyeing a potential IPO. Now, the trendsetting media company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The company’s lenders — Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital — have agreed to purchase the company for $225 million. That’s only about 4% of the company’s 2017 valuation. Vice also has the right to sell to a higher bidder.
“This accelerated court-supervised sale process will strengthen the company and position VICE for long-term growth,” said Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, VICE’s co-CEOs, in a press release. “We will have new ownership, a simplified capital structure and the ability to operate without the legacy liabilities that have been burdening our business.”
[This is the end of the clickbait bubble, as well as the long-term outcome of Facebook’s change in terms for engaging with such content a few years back. Platforms that relied on those strategies have all failed. Those that focused on content quality and independence may not have hit the sugar-highs of profit in the short term, but they turned out to be better oriented to long-term survival. — Ed]
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