The Onion will continue to try to find a path to buying Infowars after a federal bankruptcy judge rejected their bid late Tuesday.
Though the satirical news site’s bid for the Alex Jones site had been selected in November, Judge Christopher Lopez, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, said Tuesday that there were problems with transparency during the sealed bidding at the November auction, according to multiple media outlets. He further found that the sealed bidding process did not maximize the value for Jones’ creditors, who include the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims.
Ben Collins, CEO of Global Tetrahedron, The Onion’s parent company, said the company will “continue to seek a resolution.” The Onion had worked with the Sandy Hook families and had a total bid of $7 million, which included $1.75 million in cash. The rest came from the Sandy Hook families, who agreed to put some of the potential money from their defamation lawsuit against Jones toward the bid, The New York Times reported.
“We are deeply disappointed in today’s decision, but The Onion will continue to seek a resolution that helps the Sandy Hook families receive a positive outcome for the horror they endured. We will also continue to seek a path towards purchasing InfoWars in the coming weeks. It is part of our larger mission to make a better, funnier internet, regardless of the outcome of this case,” Collins said in a statement.
“We appreciate that the court repeatedly recognized The Onion acted in good faith, but are disappointed that everyone was sent back to the drawing board with no winner, and no clear path forward for any bidder. And for all of those as upset about this as we are, please know we will continue to seek moments of hope. We are undeterred in our mission to make a funnier world,” he continued.
Jones had been forced to sell Infowars in order to help pay off the $1.5 billion in damages he owed the Sandy Hook families after falsely claiming that the shooting had been a hoax.
The Onion was set to acquire Infowars after their auction bid was selected by the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings for Free Speech Systems, the media company owned by Jones.
The Onion’s goal in acquiring the site was “to end Infowars’ relentless barrage of disinformation for the sake of selling supplements and replace it with The Onion’s relentless barrage of humor for good,” the company said in a press release at the time.
Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Connecticut families, said the families were also dissapointed in the judge’s ruling.
“More than two years after earning historic verdicts in Connecticut, we are disappointed the Bankruptcy Court rejected a purchase of Infowars that the court-appointed trustee recommended as being in the best interest of the creditors. These families, who have already persevered through countless delays and roadblocks, remain resilient and determined as ever to hold Alex Jones and his corrupt businesses accountable for the harm he has caused,” Mattei said.