Vice Media Group set for $350m sale to Fortress, Soros & Monroe

LR: Bruce Dixon & Hozefa Lokhandwala

Vice Media Group is to be sold to Fortress Investment Group, the company’s largest debtholder, after it put forward a $350m bid for the ailing company.

The acquisition comes a month after Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York and will see Fortress, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital taking control of the company.

The trio had initially made a bid of $225m but increased it late last week, with the US bankruptcy court approving the revised offer – which was put forward as a credit bid – on Friday.

Fortress, Soros and Monroe will acquire all assets, including UK-based Gangs Of London producer Pulse Films, the Vice TV network, the Vice Studios film & TV unit, a distribution arm, Refinery29, agency Carrot Creative and fashion title i-D.

Vice co-CEO’s, Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala, said they believed the deal “represents the best path forward” for the company, while Vice lawyer Fred Sosnick said it put the company “on a secure footing for the future”.

Sosnick also told the US court that 10 interested parties had put forward proposals to buy the entirety of the company, with five further proposals to acquire selected assets.

Fortress is now likely to look to stabilise the company with US reports suggesting it will then look to sell again in three or four years, while in the interim, certain assets could be sold.

What happened at Vice?

The news brings an end to the ongoing turmoil surrounding Vice, which had been valued at $5.7bn in 2017 and counted Disney, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and Antenna Group among its investors.

However, the firm, which started life as the alternative-punk Vice magazine in the 1990s and grew into a major media brand over the decades, has suffered from advertising shifts and declining audiences. It owed almost $475m to Fortress, Soros and Monroe when it filed for bankruptcy.

Dixon and Lokhandwala were appointed co-CEO’s at Vice after Nancy Dubuc stepped down in February, with her arrival in 2018 following a flurry of allegations against Vice founder Shane Smith.

Dubuc’s departure was preceded by the exit of Kate Ward, who had been president of Vice’s global studios operation since 2019 and led Pulse Films since its founders’ left last year. Ward joined BBC Studios (BBCS) Productions as MD of its factual operations in September.

The firm has also been shifting its operations internationally, closing linear networks and its operations in France, as well as pushing into FAST news channels, as revealed by TBI.