A week before that, BuzzFeed Inc (BZFD.O) said it would shutter its news division. The company had on April 27 said it would cancel popular TV program "Vice News Tonight" as part of a broader restructuring of its news division. Vice has received commitments and consent from the lenders to use more than $20 million in cash, which it said will be "more than sufficient" to fund its business through the sale process. It rose to prominence alongside its co-founder Shane Smith, who built his media empire from a single Canadian magazine. Vice was among a group of fast-rising digital media ventures that once had rich valuations as they courted millennial audiences. "Creditors are taking it (Vice) over at a steep discount and we will find out whether they can become viable with a much slimmer capital structure coming out of bankruptcy," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at investment firm Great Hill Capital. Vice listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $500 million to $1 billion. Under a credit bid, creditors can swap their secured debt, rather than pay cash, for the company's assets. Vice said the lender consortium that includes Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital will provide about $225 million in credit bid for almost all of its assets and also assume significant liabilities at closing. The bankruptcy filing is a fallout of a challenging period for many technology and media companies that have been cutting costs to survive a weak advertising market amid slowing economic growth. "This accelerated court-supervised sale process will strengthen the company and position Vice for long-term growth, thereby safeguarding the kind of authentic journalism and content creation that makes Vice such a trusted brand for young people and such a valued partner to brands, agencies and platforms.May 15 (Reuters) - Vice Media Group, popular for websites such as Vice and Motherboard, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday to engineer its sale to a group of lenders, capping years of financial difficulties and top-executive departures. "Vice serves a huge global audience with a unique brand of news, entertainment and lifestyle content," Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, Vice’s co-chief executives, said. It added it expects to receive court approval for these requests. It said it has filed several customary first-day motions with the court seeking authorization to support its operations during the court-supervised sale process, including the continued payment of employee wages and benefits without interruption and payment to vendors and suppliers on normal terms for goods and services provided on or after the filing date. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The money to sustain operations has been released as part of a deal with Vice Media’s bondholders that gives them the right to buy the company for $225 million but also allows other bidders to submit higher or better bids.Īs part of the deal, Vice Media on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. In a letter to international partners it emphasised that “Vice’s international operating subsidiaries will continue to operate as they have been” and “we have sufficient liquidity to support our continuing operations." The company said its brands, which include creative agency Virtue and media brands Vice, Vice News, Vice TV, Vice Studios, Pulse Films, Virtue, Refinery29 and i-D, “will continue to produce and deliver award-winning content across platforms." and internationally while it finds a new owner over the space of the next two to three months. Vice Media has claimed it has secured enough money to keep operating both in the U.S.
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