(LifeSiteNews) — Once worth nearly $6 billion to investors, edgy left-wing news outlet Vice is now preparing to file for bankruptcy, The New York Times reported Monday. The news comes just weeks after fellow leftist online organization Buzzfeed was forced to shut down amid company-wide layoffs.
Characterizing the millennial-oriented outlet as a “brash digital media disrupter,” the Times reported that Vice, whose left-wing content ranged from coverage of geopolitical conflicts to guidance on self-managed abortion, may be forced to file for bankruptcy “in the coming weeks” after failing to find a buyer.
Though it had been valued at $5.7 billion in 2017, Axios said Vice has so far been unsuccessful in finding a buyer willing to pay a far smaller $1 billion price tag. And while a purchase could still take place, one of the Times’ sources said that’s unlikely to happen.
READ: Left-wing Vice publishes guide on ‘giving yourself an abortion’
In a Monday statement, Vice said it has “been engaged in a comprehensive evaluation of strategic alternatives and planning.”
“The company, its board and stakeholders continue to be focused on finding the best path for the company,” the news outlet said.
Founded in Canada in 1994, Vice moved its headquarters from Canada to New York City in 2001 and swiftly accrued over $1 billion from top investors, including The Walt Disney Company, 21st Century Fox, and A&E Networks, according to Axios.
Boasting a robust staff operating out of dozens of bureaus worldwide, Vice built its brand with its highly watchable journalistic reports on global events that garnered it well over 16 million subscribers on YouTube, where it began posting videos in 2013.
Lara Pendergast, deputy online editor of The Spectator, remarked in a 2014 piece that Vice had generated appeal among the younger generation of news consumers with its sharp, media-savvy approach and “young, fearless foreign correspondents,” which together served to make more traditional news outlets seem “hackneyed” by comparison.
However, the youth-oriented outlet’s rate of growth began to slow in the following years; after reaching its peak in 2017, by 2018 it wasn’t bringing in a profit, Axios noted. Unable to pay its debts, Vice tried laying off staff members, went through corporate restructurings, and canceled programming, but the efforts weren’t sufficient to right Vice’s sinking ship.
If it ends up filing for bankruptcy, Vice could wind up being controlled by Fortress Investment Group, which The New York Times said is Vice’s largest debtholder.
In that event, according to the Times, “Vice would continue operating normally and run an auction to sell the company over a 45-day period, with Fortress in pole position as the most likely acquirer.”
News of Vice’s potential descent into bankruptcy comes hard on the heels of the fold-up of the once highly popular left-leaning news outlet Buzzfeed after the devastating layoffs of 15% of the outfit’s staff.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, content published by BuzzFeed Inc. will now appear exclusively under the left-wing Huffington Post news brand, Buzzfeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti said in a memo to the outlet’s employees.
READ: Leftist media outlet BuzzFeed News shuts down amid company layoffs
Meanwhile, Buzzfeed’s failure and Vice’s anticipated bankruptcy have both occurred within a series of upheavals in the media space in just the past several months.
In March, conservative investigative journalism outfit Project Veritas separated from its dynamic founder James O’Keefe, who quickly launched a new venture called O’Keefe Media Group. On April 24, right-wing cable news giant Fox News stated it had “parted ways” with its most popular host Tucker Carlson, a move that triggered massive backlash for the channel and outpourings of support for the staunchly conservative pundit. The same day that Fox announced it was canceling Carlson’s TV show, leftist cable outlet CNN also ended its contract with former primetime host Don Lemon.