SAN FRANCISCO: Vice Media Group has filed for bankruptcy and the company’s lenders, Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, have agreed to buy the company for $225 million – the company’s highest valuation in six years. About 4 percent ago.
In 2017, Vice Media raised $450 million, valuing the media company at approximately $5.7 billion.
To facilitate the sale, Vice filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
All its multi-platform media brands including Vice, Vice News, Vice TV, Vice Studios, Pulse Films, Virtue, Refinery29 and id will continue to produce and distribute award-winning content across all platforms.
“We will have new ownership, a simplified capital structure and the ability to operate without legacy liabilities burdening our business,” said co-chief executives Bruce Dixon and Hosefa Lokhandwala.
“We look forward to completing the sale process over the next two to three months and to a healthy and successful next chapter at Vice,” he added.
Last month, Vice Media laid off more than 100 employees as part of a restructuring of its global organizations, along with discontinuing its Vice News Tonight broadcast.
Vice joins a growing list of media companies that recently closed businesses and laid off employees amid global macroeconomic conditions.
Several media outlets, such as ABC News, NPR, Vox Media, CNN and others, have laid off staff members in recent months.
Vice Media Group is a multi-platform media company. Its Emmy and Peabody Award-winning news division VICE just launched its fourth season on Paramount+ with Showtime, and its coverage of the war in Ukraine has been watched by millions on TikTok.
Its studio group, including Pulse Films, produced Bamrush for HBO Max, Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now for Netflix, American Gladiators for ESPN, Gangs of London for Sky and Tell Me Lies for Hulu.