• booly@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    They are not telling the onion to offer more money, they are giving the one with the highest bid the chance to make it even bigger.

    No, the Jones-affiliated bidder had a smaller bid, but should’ve been given the opportunity to try to outbid the then-highest bid from the Onion.

    Basically the judge said that the trustee, as auctioneer, should’ve gotten the two bidders into a bidding war to maximize the price.

    • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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      21 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.

      The Jones one was the largest of the two, but the onion was favored by the families

      • booly@sh.itjust.works
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        21 hours ago

        The value of the Onion’s bid was $7 million ($1.75 million in cash, $5.25 million in credit), when you include the credit bids from the families. That’s where you’re getting tripped up in trying to understand what the court was ruling.

        • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          20 hours ago

          No, there was no 5.25 in credit. I’m happy to see any source for that claim though.

          There was some future payments promised and a better than usual split for some families, so they “valued” the bid at 7 million.

          • user134450@feddit.org
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            20 hours ago

            a better than usual split for some families

            That is exactly what counts as credit in this case, because this split is made possible by some other families crediting the bid. Basically writing “i dont want this money give it to someone else” on a figurative piece of paper and bidding with that instead of cash.

          • booly@sh.itjust.works
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            17 hours ago

            There was some future payments promised

            It’s not future payments promised. Just a division of who to split the proceeds with. And so for the typical creditor who didn’t credit bid, The Onion’s bid was worth the equivalent of a $7 million cash bid, and therefore was more valuable than the Jones affiliates’ $3.5 million cash bid.

            It’s just math. The Onion bid was higher, and the judge said that the losing bid should’ve been given an opportunity to improve the bid to get a chance to win, and maybe raise even more money.

            • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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              8 hours ago

              Murray valued it at that amount, it didn’t have that real value. Even future payments were a percentage of profits and but not guaranteed.

              That equivalence is only theoretical, not real. If you think they can write "it’s 7 million but I let you hav 5.75, then we can have the bid at 99 trillions! Why not? They can just say they only Want 1.25.