Vice Media Files for Bankruptcy

Vice Media, which owns Vice, women’s media brand Refinery29 and fashion and culture-focussed publication i-D, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday.

A group of Vice’s lenders, including Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, submitted a $225 million bid to buy the company out of bankruptcy, and secured a $20 million loan to keep the business afloat in the meantime. The bankruptcy will not disrupt ongoing operations or content publication at Vice or any of its owned properties.

“It is very much business as usual for the company,” a Vice spokesperson told BoF. “We look forward to emerging from the sales process stronger and our day to day operations continue unimpacted.”

Founded as a magazine in Canada in 2004, Vice went on to become a darling of the digital media world, raising over $1.6 billion in funding from major names like Disney and private equity company TPG. In 2017, it was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017. In recent years, as the business has faded from its peak, it’s sought out a buyer, but failed to find one that would pay a nine-figure price. In 2021, it closed fashion title Garage.

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Vice Media Will Cease Publishing Garage Magazine

The spring issue of the biannual publication will be its last at Vice, which acquired a majority stake in the art and fashion title from founder Dasha Zhukova five years ago. But the publication will not shut down.