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Vice Media is moving forward with a deal to be acquired by a group of buyers including Fortress Investment Group, one of the company’s lenders. A bankruptcy auction that had been set for June 22 was called off. While several bidders competed for the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, Fortress’s offer was the only one that met the criteria Vice had set for potential buyers, according to a report in the New York Times. Vice co-CEOs Hozefa Lokhandwala and Bruce Dixon wrote in a Thursday memo to staffers that they would forward the bid to bankruptcy court for approval. Fortress recently upped its initial $225 million bid to $350 million—a far cry from the $5.7 billion valuation Vice had in 2017. The Fortress deal beat out an offer from Latino digital media company GoDigital. The Times says that Fortress has already received buyer interest in several of Vice’s business units, the proceeds from which could cover its investment.
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| Zenia Mucha |
TikTok has signed up former Disney chief communications officer Zenia Mucha as chief brand and communications officer. Since leaving Disney last year, Mucha has led communications consultancy company ZM Strategies. She has also worked as a consultant for TikTok. Before coming on board at Disney in 2001, Mucha led communications for New York Governor George Pataki and Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. “Zenia will focus on advancing the strategic vision of our brand and advising key businesses,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in an announcement to employees.
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Meta is responding to a law passed by Canada’s Senate on June 22 by ending the availability of news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms. The Online News Act requires Meta, along with Google, to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content appearing on their sites if that content generates revenue for the company. “We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, which was passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” said Lisa Laventure, head of communications for Meta in Canada.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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