Judge Refuses to Allow Sale of Infowars to The Onion

[reACTIONary]

Source: NYT

A judge late Tuesday night said he would not approve the sale of Infowars, the website founded by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, to the Chicago-based satirical publication The Onion, prolonging a messy tug of war between two high-profile suitors.

The ruling, by Judge Christopher Lopez in federal bankruptcy court in Houston, puts The Onion’s plan to take possession of the Infowars site and its associated assets in limbo. The Onion’s bid was backed by the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, who in 2022 won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Mr. Jones.

A spokesman for The Onion did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Mr. Jones did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Though the case involved colorful litigants dueling for a controversial prize, it ultimately hinged on austere matters of protocol. The arguments over two days of court hearings boiled down to whether the court-appointed trustee adhered to the law when he solicited bids and ultimately picked Global Tetrahedron, The Onion’s parent company, as the winner.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/business/media/the-onion-infowars-alex-jones.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gk4.RcMQ.MH99q1c4sWck&smid=url-share

[CousinIT]

1. Did Eloon bribe the judge?

I’d not put it past the slimy robber baron weasel.

[2naSalit]

2. Or buys it...

Just so fuckhead can keep being a pos online.

[mahina]

3. Nooooo

Hoping there can be an appeal

[orleans]

4. crap! appeal the ruling!

Not including the backing of the Sandy Hook families, First United American Companies had a higher bid, offering $3.5 million in cash. But Jeff Tanenbaum, an expert who advised the court-appointee trustee on the sale, said that the combined bid with the Sandy Hook families was superior.

Another point was whether Christopher Murray, the trustee overseeing the sale of Infowars, should have allowed suitors to submit their bids privately rather than in an open auction. A lawyer for the bidder affiliated with Mr. Jones argued the sealed bidding was improper; lawyers for the trustee and Global Tetrahedron argued it was acceptable.

As the drama played out in court, Mr. Jones hosted on X what he billed as the “final Infowars broadcast ever,” inaccurately telling viewers that the company was being sold to the billionaire Michael Bloomberg. He criticized the bankruptcy trustee’s process as an “Alice in Wonderland-level bizarroland.”

Before the hearing, Mr. Jones argued in a filing that the Sandy Hook families and Global Tetrahedron improperly colluded on their bid, making “a mockery of a fair and transparent auction and bidding process.” Mr. Jones’s filing, which ran for 29 pages, was a hodgepodge that traced alleged connections between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Sandy Hook families.

Although the hearing started off in decorous fashion, it got increasingly heated. At one point, a lawyer for the bidder associated with Mr. Jones questioned how the Sandy Hook families could afford “all these lawyers,” a remark that drew immediate objections.

https://archive.is/8q8m8#selection-4737.0-4766.0

[Hope22]

5. It's always something!

Time will tell.

[Astraea]

6. offs just let elon buy it

he's used to flushing his money down the xitter.

[Botany]

7. Not as bad as it seems. "I don't think it's enough money," Judge Lopez said.

“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. “I think that the process fell down.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/bankruptcy-judge-rejects-onions-bid-buy-alex-jones-infowars-rcna183453

[MadameButterfly]

8. a rival bidder associated with Jones

means Jones gets InfoWars back and the lawsuits accomplished nothing.

He should have to give up InfoWars. It should be over. Whatever it takes.
The Onion owning it would just be some extra fun.

[Montauk6]

9. I don't see where Lopez was a Trump appointee BUT...

He was given his button on 8/14/2019 by USC of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, so do the math...?

Source: https://www.txs.uscourts.gov/sites/txs/files/general-orders/Bankruptcy%20General%20Order%202019-05%20of%20Appointment%20as%20U.S.%20Bankruptcy%20Judge%20-%20Christopher%20Lopez.pdf

[Lonestarblue]

11. That was the first thing I checked because secret bids in such cases are not illegal.

He probably wants Jones’ vitriol to stay on the air to support Trump, now knowing that Musk will be able to outbid anyone and keep the lies coming.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. Musk is currently being sued in Texas by the Sandy Hook attorney, Mark Bankston, in a separate defamation case.

So I’m sure it’s personal for musk.

(Musk recklessly platformed some kooky conspiracy about some poor college kid named Mark Brody being a Fed/neo Nazi protester because some twitter RWNJ thought Brody looked similar)

Musk’s attorney in the defamation case is a major league asshole who got caught by Bankston for working on the case without a Texas law license. He’s also up for an ethics complaint for barging in the deposition and acting like an asshole.

This is all “we have fuck you money so we can do what ever we want” stuff.

Btw, musk’s attorney is Alex Spiro who just got Alec Baldwin off. He’s becoming quite the fixer for musk in handling other defamation and SEC cases and, iirc, his $60 billion dollar payday case in Delaware. Kind of a Michael cohen without the redemption arc

[PunkinPi]

10. Bluesky post from Ben Collins (The Onion owner)...

[Javaman]

12. so judge said it wasn't enough money...

so jones will find some slimy billionaire to buy it for him and he'll be back on the air again spewing hate, stupidity and crazy ass shit.

[jeffreyi]

13. Gee, wonder who.

This bad guys winning thing is really getting annoying.

[Vinca]

14. A leftie billionaire needs to step up to the plate and either buy it or bid it up enough so the Sandy Hook

families finally get paid.

[tonekat]

16. Are there any "lefty billionaires"

If there are, they sure keep silent.

[Polybius]

18. Mark Cuban, George Soros, LeBron James, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois

Just to name a few.

[Elessar Zappa]

21. 82 billionaires endorsed Harris while 50-some endorsed Trump.

But there’s a lot more billionaires than that so take it for what it’s worth.

[republianmushroom]

17. This is Bull Shit.

Bought and paid for judge ?

[ificandream]

19. All because Jones whined and cried like a good little maga baby. Wah, wah, wah!

It was a done deal. It shouldn't have been unraveled.

[GenThePerservering]

20. Trump signing those checks had another use

when regressives sneered about all of the "free money" the gummint was giving people then, more than a few of us answered "Oh, you mean those checks that Trump signed?" ::silence::