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Judge Rejects Sale of Infowars to The Onion (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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“It seemed doomed almost from the moment they decided to go to a sealed bid,” Judge Lopez said. “Nobody knows what anybody else is bidding,” he added.

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[–] 24 points 2 years ago (6 children)

It's technically the law. Bankruptcy procedures are geared to enable the return of the maximum amount of proceeds for the creditors.

Sealed bid kind of torpedos that I suppose, but considering the shit stain on history that Infowars is, I feel like an exception should have been made here.

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago

    Sealed buds are usually better for that.

    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sealed-bid-auction.asp

    Each party is incentivised to make the highest offer they're willing to pay from the beginning, as opposed to negotiating the best price they can get.

    Additionally, the families forgiving a significant amount of money as part of the bid should factor in, since the responsibility of the estate is to get the best deal, not the most cash.

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Problem is why did that auction even happen or rather was allowed if it was technically now allowed for a bankrupcy case?

    Feels like intentional so they can go "well, we don't like the winner. time to revoke it"

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 2 years ago

    Apparently Jones chose a sham for his trustee who decided how to run the auction

    Edit: "sham" as in how Jones saw it. After receiving only 2 bids, Murray—the trustee—decided to only solicit best and final offers instead of following the original open auction procedure; the court didn't expect changing those rules, but the change was completely within the trustee's power. Though both bidders had no objections to the changed rules, the lost bidder and Jones did after the results came out and sued, and the court felt like Murray should've done something else (while clarifying that they felt Murray acted in good faith).

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