I’ve heard a rumor to that effect.
Is there any truth to it?
Will it have any effect on the board?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Creative Loafing at Wikipedia.
Yes, the owners of this Board are in bankruptcy procedings.
No one is quite certain what it will do to the Board.
The board’s going away. Bet on it.
Latest news is that that there was a court hearing on the 27th to set the rules for an equity auction taking place in August. Can’t see that a ruling has been issued yet.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. CL management has found a sure-fire way to boost the company’s online profile by hiring bloggers off Craigslist.
Correction: The hearing got pushed back to today.
Updates should be posted here after the hearing.
The funny news:
So if they auction us off, can we buy us?
In theory, yes. But I’m guessing that the SD will be parceled in with The Reader, so you’d have to buy the lot.
Now if you have some spare cash and want to run an unprofitable newspaper, it’s yours to bid for!
ETA: - cite
I’ll buy the whole thing for $175.
The sad thing is, the company borrowed $30m a few years ago and now it looks like it will be bought for a tenth of that.
And that’s exactly WHY they went into bankruptcy. They overleveraged in what appears (to my eye) to be a foolish way.
I’d love to buy them, actually. I think I could turn it around and I’d love to own a media outlet in Chicago. It’s my home town.
I agree it was a very foolish thing to do. My understanding is that they went into bankruptcy because the lender demanded they pay back some or all of the money. (The nerve of those damn lenders.)
Frankly I think Eason will probably keep control of the company – he’ll win the “I am newspaper man, they’re just money men” argument about who is best to run it. Yes, it seems odd considering the bang up job he’s done but oh well. The worst thing is that when company’s neglect or default on their responsibilities it makes it that much harder for others to legitimately seek funding.
If you can raise a couple million, you’re in! 
All that being said, I hope that at the end of this whole damn court mess whoever emerges will do some cool and interesting things with the SD.
We can hope, I guess. I’d start by trying to lure back the mods who departed after Ed’s farcical new Pit-dogma clusterfuck and encouraging a few who remained here to find lodgings elsewhere…
Serious question:
What is the business attraction for the SDMB? Traffic to the site for ads? Name maintenance for when/if we ever see another Cecil book?
Hell, I like this board, and (most of) the people on it. And I for one welcome our new cash-bearing overlords. But what do we offer in return? Is that worth the cost of a server or two, and people to run it as a business venture?
There are so many ways they could increase traffic and revenue here. I am really hoping that once these proceedings are done *someone *will step in and start managing this place properly.
I certainly can’t and won’t argue with any of that!
Looks like that $30 million was just what they borrowed from Atalaya and they borrowed another $10 million from BIA Digital Partners.
The current state of play, far as I see it:
BIA and Eason are teaming up to attempt to gain control via the auction, with Eason saying that a) it just ain’t fair that Atalaya will be able to bid more than him and, b) that if Atalaya gain control they’ll just shut CL down to pay back what’s owed 'em.
Atalaya (who, it should be noted, have lowered the debt owed to them to $12 million), say that the company’s financial woes are down to bad management and that if they win the auction they’ll continue to run CL as a business and inject another $1 million for operating costs.
As to what all this means to the SDMB; not a clue. Compared to the core business, this place is very small fry. As is, under Eason, CL’s newspapers have become little more than pamphlets now and they’ve got shot of a cubic shedload of good newspaper folk, replacing them with unpaid bloggers as he seemingly attempts to reposition the various 'papers as new versions of Gawker.com.
I don’t think that’s gonna work out well and I don’t see that Eason will devote much - if any - attention to the SDMB while he attempts to stop the company from circling the drain. Maybe new management could improve things.
That’s always the trick. I’d need a white knight at this point.