Salon Media Announces $5 Million Sale, 'Bankruptcy and Liquidation' Threatened If Deal Fails
Salon Media says they have reached an 11th hour deal to sell the company and its flagship property Salon.com for $5 million. In an SEC filing, Salon also revealed its position was dire and that it would face imminent "bankruptcy and liquidation" if the deal should fall through.
[...] The company buying Salon was named only as Salon.com LLC and appeared to be getting an even better deal than the top line figures first suggest. To complete the sale, the buyer need only pay $550,000 at closing, with an additional $100,000 left in an escrow account. The filing also showed that a deposit of $500,000 had already been paid.
[...] Though it was once a powerful force in the early days of internet blogging and a prominent incubator of talent, the website has fallen on hard times in recent years. On May 3, the filing revealed, CEO Jordan Hoffner departed the company. Salon's longtime chief financial officer, Elizabeth Hambrecht, also jumped ship last October.
[...] The company's troubles, however began long before and were documented in detail in a 2016 Politico Magazine story, which revealed that for years Salon — deeply unprofitable — had been kept afloat by elderly benefactors, John Warnock, a co-founder of Adobe, and Bill Hambrecht a venture capitalist. The two are now 78 and 84 respectively.
"Because Salon has run deficits for almost every quarter since it was founded, the company has relied on regular interest-free cash advances from Warnock, chairman of Salon's board, and Hambrecht, a board member," Politico wrote at the time. "From Salon's founding until the end of 2015, the most recent data available, Warnock and Hambrecht have given the company nearly $20 million in cash advances, and Warnock also personally guaranteed a $1 million line of credit."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday May 16 2019, @07:46AM (5 children)
Wage slavery is a choice. You're free at any time to play some Johnny Paycheck and become your own boss. Most people don't because they don't care how bad things are as long as they're predictable.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @12:04AM (4 children)
Libertarian anarcho-capitalist is also a choice. You're free at any time to change your opinions and become a communist or fascist or middle of the road some-government-is-good-ist.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 17 2019, @04:24AM (3 children)
True but only because our founders were libertarian anarcho-capitalists. If they followed you lot's playbook state indoctrination would be mandatory and wrongthink would be an imprisonment offense.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @07:21AM (2 children)
My lot? And which lot are you assuming I'm in? And the US founders were less libertarian anarcho-capitalists than wealthy landowners that were trying to A) make sure they stayed in power and B) get a batch of other wealthy landowners (the colony leaders that weren't at the convention) that wanted to stay in power to cooperate and give up some power. Definitely not anarchist type. Just look at the Sedition Act of 1798.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday May 17 2019, @10:39AM (1 child)
I'm assuming you're in one of the many lots that aren't libertarian anarcho-capitalists, duh. Any of them that view liberty with contempt because human nature conflicts with their grand vision will do. They're really all just different flavors of the same thing.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @02:15PM
Liberty is great, for the lone person on a deserted island. Once you start putting people together then you need to start making compromises and rules. The differences are in who makes the rules, how many rules, and how the rules are enforced.