NEW YORK, NY—Media company VICE filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a court on Monday, May 15 in New York. Their lenders are likely to take over the company for $225 million. They include Fortress Investment Group and Soros Fund Management. The purchase would be covered by its existing loans to the company.
The lenders have secured a loan of $20 million in order to keep the media company running. If a higher bid is not submitted, the group that includes Fortress and Soros will acquire VICE.
The company was founded by Gavin McInnes, Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith in Montreal in 1994. They initially covered sub-cultures and music in print. They expanded to video in 2006 with an expansion on the nature of content they covered.
VICE’S YouTube channel has 16.8 million subscribers. Some of their most viewed documentaries include “The Superhuman World of Wim Hof: The Iceman,” “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” and “Slutever.”
The company was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017.
“Vice serves a huge global audience with a unique brand of news, entertainment and lifestyle content,” said Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, co-chief executives of the company.
VICE won multiple Peabody awards for news journalism. Their latest came in 2023 for the documentary “No Justice for Women in the Taliban’s Afghanistan.”
