VICE News which created an uproar here last year when it sought to pin Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo to a bribery scandal is headed to bankruptcy.
This is according a report yesterday by the New York Times (NYT).
The NYT said that the digital-media disrupter who charmed giants like Disney and Fox into investing before a stunning crash-landing, is set to file for bankruptcy, according to two people with knowledge of its operations.
The filing could come in the coming weeks, the NYT said, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The NYT said that the company has been looking for a buyer, and still might find one, to avoid declaring bankruptcy. More than five companies have expressed interest in acquiring VICE, according to a person briefed on the discussions. The chances of that, however, are growing increasingly slim, said one of the people.
The NYT said that in 2017, after a funding round from the private-equity firm TPG, VICE was worth US$5.7 billion. But today, by most accounts, it’s worth a tiny fraction of that.
In the event of a bankruptcy, the NYT said that VICE’s largest debtholder, Fortress Investment Group, could end up controlling the company, said one of the people. 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.
“VICE Media Group has been engaged in a comprehensive evaluation of strategic alternatives and planning,” Vice said in a statement on Monday. “The company, its board and stakeholders continue to be focused on finding the best path for the company.”
VICE began as a punk magazine in Montreal more than two decades ago. Over the years, it blossomed into a global media company with a movie studio, an ad agency, a glossy show on HBO and bureaus in several world capitals. Disney, after investing hundreds of millions in VICE, explored buying the company in 2015 for more than US$3 billion, according to the two people familiar with the conversations.
The deal never materialized, the NYT said. The company has been trying for years to turn a profit but has consistently failed to do so, losing money and repeatedly laying off employees.
Last week, the NYT said that VICE told employees it was closing VICE World News, a global reporting initiative that covered world conflict and human-rights abuses.
Thrall
In the early months of 2022, VICE held the country in thrall after Jagdeo published parts of a bombshell interview with the news agency in which he was asked if he had taken bribes from Chinese companies via Su.
In its elaborate undercover operation here, VICE News recorded Su – who had been renting a house from Jagdeo – and others as saying bribery was only way to do business here and the pathway was via Jagdeo to whom payments would have to be made. Jagdeo vehemently denied the allegations and later expelled Su from the house next door to him and sued him. Su subsequently vanished and has not been heard from since.
It was clear that VICE’s intention was to catch Jagdeo on the take when it took a fake businessman “Mr Chan” to his residence and raised the question of payments.
In a snippet in the footage aired by VICE News of the encounter at Jagdeo’s house that involved his next door tenant, Su, and “Mr Chan”, the latter duly thanks Jagdeo for seeing him and is ushered to a seat. “Mr Chan” then tried to set the trap when he enquired of the Vice President “do you understand our deal in detail?”
Mr Jagdeo then protests: “No, no, no, no. I am not getting involved with business. You will get the support. Su is my friend. He gets all the support. Su deals with all the agreements. I don’t, I don’t. The thing is that – my thing is that I am in government. So I assist from (the) government side. That’s it”.
Without the admission it was looking for, the 16-minute programme aired in June, `Guyana For Sale’ ended imply with a wistful remark about Guyanese being left to question “who gets to buy their country and for what price”.
The controversy drew in the Chinese Embassy and led to many calls for an investigation of Jagdeo. There has been no investigation.
VICE News journalist, Isobel Yeung, and her undercover colleague (who is referred to as ‘Mr Chan’), in the series posed as ‘investors’ whose declared interests are in the mining, logging and construction sectors. Yeung explained that this was done to unearth the “corrupt deals” in business transactions.
While undercover, Yeung said they were presented with a deal dubbed the most lucrative, with lands in a prime location where a hotel and casino could be built.
The VICE News’ ‘investors’ agreed that that would be the deal, Yeung said. According to the VICE News report, the trail to securing any agreement begins with the notorious ‘middlemen’ and went all the way to Jagdeo.
