Vice Media files for bankruptcy, lenders to purchase it for just $225 mn

San Francisco, May 16

Vice Media Group has filed for bankruptcy and the company's lenders, Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, agreed to purchase the company for $225 million -- just about 4 per cent of the company's highest valuation just over six years ago.

In 2017, Vice Media had raised $450 million, valuing the media company at around $5.7 billion.

To facilitate the sale, Vice filed voluntary petitions for reorganisation under Chapter 11 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

All of its multi-platform media brands, including 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.

"We will have new ownership, a simplified capital structure and the ability to operate without the legacy liabilities that have been burdening our business," said Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, Co-Chief Executive Officers.

"We look forward to completing the sale process in the next two to three months and charting a healthy and successful next chapter at Vice," they added.

Last month, Vice Media laid off more than 100 employees as part of restructuring its global organisations, along with shutting down its Vice News Tonight broadcast.

Vice joins a growing list of media companies which shut down businesses and laid off employees recently amid the global macroeconomic conditions.

Several media outlets, like 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 just launched its fourth season of VICE on Paramount+ with Showtime and its coverage of the war in Ukraine has been watched on TikTok by hundreds of millions of people.

Its studio group, including Pulse Films, produced Bamarush 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.