A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by The Onion’s parent company to buy Alex Jones’ far-right media empire, including the website Infowars, ruling that the auction process was unfair.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said after a two-day hearing that The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron, had not submitted the best bid and was wrongly named the winner of an auction last month by a court-appointed trustee.
“I don’t think it’s enough money,” Lopez said in a late-night ruling from the bench in a Houston court. “I’m going to not approve the sale.”
It was not immediately clear whether there would be a new auction in which The Onion could bid again for Jones’ assets. Lopez said he would leave the decision about what to do next in the hands of the trustee, Christopher Murray, who had overseen the auction.
The judge said Murray had acted in good faith in running the auction in which The Onion’s parent company initially appeared to prevail, but he said the trustee did not run a transparent process and should have given a rival bidder associated with Jones another chance to improve its bid.
“I think you’ve got to go out and try to get every dollar,” Lopez said.
The ruling dashed, at least for now, Global Tetrahedron’s plans to take over Infowars and radically shift its content from anti-government conspiracy theories to satirical humor.
The Global Tetrahedron bid consisted of two components: $1.75 million in cash and a noncash pledge by some of the bankruptcy case creditors — families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut — to forgo the proceeds they would typically receive from the sale. Some of the families partnered with The Onion in its bid.
Murray said he valued the bid at $7 million in all.
A rival bidder associated with Jones, First United American Cos., offered $3.5 million in cash, or twice as much cash as The Onion’s parent company.
At stake is control of many assets from Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems, including the intellectual property associated with Infowars.com, production equipment such as computers and studio lights, and inventory from Jones’ nutritional supplements business.
Jones’ assets are being sold off in bankruptcy because he owes $1.2 billion to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Jones falsely and repeatedly told his audience that the shooting was a hoax, and the families successfully sued him for defamation and other claims.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
