Vice Media files for bankruptcy to enable sale to lenders including Soros and Fortress

Once a integer media darling, Vice Media Group connected Monday filed for bankruptcy extortion aft years of fiscal troubles.

A consortium of Vice's lenders which includes Fortress Investment, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital is looking to get the institution pursuing the filing.

The integer media trailblazer, erstwhile valued astatine $5.7 cardinal and known for sites including Vice and Motherboard, had been restructuring and cutting jobs crossed its planetary quality concern implicit caller months.

The radical acceptable to bargain the institution volition supply $225 cardinal successful the signifier of a recognition bid for astir of Vice Media's assets, the institution announced connected Monday, on with important liabilities.

Vice is 1 of respective integer media and exertion firms forced to restructure this twelvemonth amid a sluggish system and anemic advertizing market. Buzzfeed past period shuttered its quality part and announced important layoffs.

Launched successful Canada successful 1994 arsenic a fringe magazine, Vice expanded astir the satellite with youth-focused contented and a salient societal media presence. It endured respective years of fiscal troubles, however, arsenic tech giants specified arsenic Google and Meta vacuumed up planetary advertisement spend.

To facilitate its sale, Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy successful the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. If the exertion is approved, different parties volition beryllium capable to bid for the company. Credit bids alteration creditors to swap secured indebtedness for institution assets alternatively than wage cash.

The consortium's bid includes a committedness of $20 cardinal successful currency to alteration Vice's operations to proceed passim the merchantability process. It is expected to reason wrong 2 to 3 months, the institution said.

Vice said its assorted multi-platform media brands including Vice News, Vice TV, Pulse Films, Virtue, Refinery29 and i-D, volition proceed to operate, portion its planetary entities and Vice TV's associated task with A&E are not portion of the Chapter 11 filing.

Vice Co-CEOs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala said successful a connection that the merchantability process volition "strengthen the Company and presumption VICE for semipermanent growth."

"We volition person caller ownership, a simplified superior operation and the quality to run without the bequest liabilities that person been burdening our business," they added.