• grue@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    237
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    23 hours ago

    A rival bidder associated with Jones, First United American Cos., offered $3.5 million in cash, or twice as much cash as The Onion’s parent company. First United American is a limited liability company affiliated with Jones’ dietary supplements business, and its bid had Jones’ blessing.

    How the fuck can that company possibly win a bid when it ought to be getting auctioned off to pay the Sandy Hook families too‽

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        6 hours ago

        Yeah, I really buy that. About as much as him saying he had nothing to do with AEJ holdings, or had no stake in the companies that his parents owned with him.

        If he’s not got a direct financial stake in this, he’s got an under the table one. No one affiliated with Jones should be able to buy InfoWars.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              5 hours ago

              The Sandy Hook plaintiffs are owed $975 million. They are supporting the Onion’s bid by pledging as much of that as necessary to beat the opposing bid (remember, they have rights to most of the auction proceeds).

              An analogy: you put something on eBay, and then decide you want to keep the item for yourself. You can easily outbid anyone else, because in the end you are (mostly) paying yourself. The only question is how much eBay’s tiny cut will be.

              Well, Sandy Hook plaintiffs are basically putting Infowars on eBay but determined to win the auction. The winner of the auction is a foregone conclusion, so the only question is what small cut some other folks are going to get.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 hours ago

                  Because there remains an unanswered question: what small cut some other folks are going to get.

                  The only way to answer that is with an auction. Just like in the above analogy, the only way to determine your eBay fees is to actually have an eBay auction.

                  And they did have an auction, but the presiding judge didn’t like the auction rules. They can change the rules and thus change the cut, but the winners won’t change.

            • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              13
              ·
              12 hours ago

              This is the first step to failing twice.

              FUAC might get another chance to bid, but so will the Onion. And the Onion will outbid FUAC, because they have up to $965 million available if necessary.

              • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                8 hours ago

                The Onion is buying it to kill it. They won’t want to recklessly spend a good chunk of their valued worth just to cut off the head of a hydra. Even if it’s better for the family’s true intentions of silencing Jones.

                • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  6
                  ·
                  8 hours ago

                  The Sandy Hook families have agreed to reduce the amount they are owed in the settlement in order to make up the difference between The Onion and the highest bidder. This allows other creditors to end up getting paid more despite The Onion’s bid being less because the families are taking less of a cut.

                  So it’s not The Onion paying more money, it’s the families taking less, and the families aren’t doing this for the money.

                • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  ·
                  8 hours ago

                  Nobody wants to spend much money on it. That’s why the Onion will win the auction, they can use $965 million of Alex Jones’s own debt, courtesy the Sandy Hook families, to pay for it.

          • ZMonster@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            11 hours ago

            Honestly this is straight out of the Infowars playbook. AJ has been fleecing racist morons with his pals for decades.

        • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          19 hours ago

          How the fuck can that company possibly win a bid when it ought to be getting auctioned off to pay the Sandy Hook families too‽

          They’re not the company being auctioned. I honestly don’t know how to make that simpler…

          • Bronzebeard@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            12 hours ago

            They didn’t say it was. But his companies are being auctioned of because he didn’t have enough money to pay the fine. But if one of his other companies is buying those company of his… There’s some shenanigans going on.

            • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              11 hours ago

              Okay? The court is ordering the bankrupt companies to be auctioned to pay for legal settlements. The other company is not part of that deal. So it can do what it wants. If you’re still confused then I can’t help you. But I’d start by realizing the judges involved probably know a lot more about the process than you do.

                • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  8 hours ago

                  “I know you are but what am I”? That’s your response? Holy shit. 😆

                  Lemmy really is a hole…

                  • Bronzebeard@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    8 hours ago

                    I explained what was happening and you doubled down on what no one was talking about. Don’t know what to tell you, man. You’ve demonstrated you can’t follow the conversation at hand.