A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by The Onionā€™s parent company to buy Alex Jonesā€™ 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 Onionā€™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.

ā€œI donā€™t think itā€™s enough money,ā€ Lopez said in a late-night ruling from the bench in a Houston court. ā€œIā€™m going to not approve the sale.ā€

  • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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    19 hours ago

    ā€œI donā€™t think itā€™s enough money,ā€ Lopez said in a late-night ruling from the bench in a Houston court. ā€œIā€™m going to not approve the sale.ā€

    Who gives a shit if ā€œyou donā€™t think itā€™s enough money.ā€ An offer was made by The Onion and accepted by the seller. What YOU want has fark-all to do with anything.

    • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Wouldnā€™t the sale of the company go directly to what he owes the people? If so I doubt the seller cares what itā€™s sold for, but the judge may think itā€™s unfair to settle that low so that the people can get more possibly? I also could be wrong and thatā€™s not were the money goes? Just seemed like thatā€™s what this is for. I doubt they will get much more after things are sold either.

  • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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    20 hours ago

    This is the most upsetting, and most literal, instance of ā€œnot the onionā€

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Obviously bullshitā€¦

    They made the highest bid, no one else bid higher.

    The judge said they should have tried to get Alex Jones to make an even higher offerā€¦

    And since they didnā€™t, it somehow means Alex Jones owns it still and is already broadcasting?

    The US legal system is a fucking joke.

    • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      They made the highest bid, no one else bid higher.

      Thatā€™s not entirely true. If you read the article, thatā€™s just not what it says.

      I hope the Onion has the resources to genuinely outbid. Perhaps they could accept crowdfunding donations to reach the amount if necessary?

      Hereā€™s Legal Eagle on this particular case, incidentally:

      https://youtu.be/GmDNz7irGgw

    • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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      20 hours ago

      They should just take all his assets and garnish any payment to him so heā€™s got 0 wealth to his name and is forced to live on minimum wage.

  • als@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    19 hours ago

    If they put the biggest bid in then surely itā€™s enough money? How come some random guy gets to decide not šŸ„“the free marketšŸ„“

    • ignirtoq@fedia.io
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      19 hours ago

      They didnā€™t put in the biggest bid. They put in a bid that was a smaller amount of cash bundled with a waiver from the Sandyhook families that were to get a damages payout that they forgo their damages claim.

      The third party evaluating the bids decided this was a better deal for Infowarsā€™ creditors, as that meant more of the bankruptcy money would be going to them, so thatā€™s why it was chosen.

  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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    19 hours ago

    They used sealed bids, thatā€™s okay when the value of something is known, but for a ā€œone of a kindā€ conspiracy theory website that doesnā€™t seem like the best method to me.