VICE Media LLC Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

VICE Media LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday, a process that is likely to result in the sale of the company to Fortress Investment Group and Soros Fund Management for $225 million. The news comes a few weeks after the company shuttered VICE World News and canceled VICE News Tonight, its flagship news television program, resulting in more than 100 layoffs across the newsroom. The company will continue to operate normally during the Chapter 11 process.

Chapter 11 filing documents viewed by Motherboard show that VICE Media LLC and 31 associated LLCs owe Fortress $474.6 million. 

"VICE Media Group today announced that it has agreed to the terms of an asset purchase agreement with a consortium of its lenders," the company said in a press release.

The filing is the latest in a series of blows to the company, which once took funding at a $5.7 billion valuation.  In 2019, the company raised $250 million in debt from investors including Fortress and George Soros's Soros Fund Management.