The ruling dashed, at least for now, the plans of The Onion’s parent company to take over Infowars and radically shift its content.

A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday rejected a bid by The Onion’s parent company to buy Alex Jones’ 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 Onion’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.

“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.”

  • als@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    184·
    22 hours ago

    If they put the biggest bid in then surely it’s enough money? How come some random guy gets to decide not 🥴the free market🥴

    • ignirtoq@fedia.io
      24·
      21 hours ago

      They didn’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 Infowars’ creditors, as that meant more of the bankruptcy money would be going to them, so that’s why it was chosen.