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Well, it turns out that The Onion’s acquisition of InfoWars is not a done deal. Following an auction process on Thursday that drew headlines across the media landscape for its absurdity, the Texas judge overseeing the bankruptcy sale has raised questions about how the auction was conducted. A hearing has been called for next week to review the auction process.
InfoWars is a fringe, right-wing website founded in 1999 and operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The website was shuttered on Thursday following the conclusion of the auction, but has since relaunched after Judge Christopher Lopez paused the sale. Jones was found guilty of defamation after claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, causing families who lost children in the tragedy to face significant harassment. A judge ultimately ordered Jones to pay almost $1.5 billion in damages following lawsuits in both Texas and Connecticut. Jones has since conceded that the shooting did occur.
“We’re all going to an evidentiary hearing, and I’m going to figure out exactly what happened,” the judge reportedly said, according to the Associated Press. “No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction.”
In a statement to Gizmodo, Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion said, “The joint bid from Global Tetrahedron and the Connecticut families has been selected as the winning bid for InfoWars. The sale is currently underway as part of the standard processes.”
At the center of Judge Lopez’s skepticism seems to be the fact that The Onion’s cash bid was less than that of First United American Companies, an organization that appears to operate Jones’ cash-making supplement business. InfoWars is persona non grata to most advertisers, but has pulled in tens of millions of dollars per year in sales of supplements with names like “Brain Force Ultra” and “Survival Shield X-2.”
First United American Companies offered a reported $3.5 million for InfoWars, which was higher than The Onion’s cash offer, presumably with the intent of allowing Jones to continue broadcasting his daily news show. But the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy auction, Christopher Murray, said in court that The Onion’s bid was the best despite having a lower cash amount because the satirical news organization had teamed up with families of the Sandy Hook shooting, who would forgo some damages from their successful defamation case against Jones to support the bid.
It’s still unclear what the structure of The Onion’s offer looked like, or how it was better than First United’s cash bid. First United’s attorneys told the judge on Thursday that the trustee changed the auction process only days before, omitting a final round that would have given them another chance to outbid The Onion.
The Onion has said it would relaunch InfoWars as a “relentless barrage of humor for good.”
