The continued legend of Diamond Comics bankruptcy has entered even more unexpected terrain.
As we pointed out earlier today, over the weekend, Diamond itself made a notice, rather than bidding from Alliance Entertainment with a slight bid of the general distribution/ad group. The alliance has developed a plan for the acquisition but has not lowered the lie and filed a complaint that their bid was appropriate and should be acknowledged by the bankruptcy court. In addition, they also demand that court fees be obtained and “as the court considers and appropriate, other and further relief.” While this is not entirely a lawsuit, it has all the language of a lawsuit.
Although hundreds of pages of documents in this bankruptcy are mostly rote, complaints filed by Alliance Entertainment are full of details and strong language, such as the act of “debtors” inexplicably refusing to seek approval from the court and selling their assets to successful bidders in order to sell their assets to their actions. ”
The document includes a complete schedule for the auction process, and subsequent negotiations on certain terms required by Diamond. A very broad overview is that the alliance negotiated with the diamonds after the auction on March 24. Meanwhile, Diamond’s claim is that Diamond is in secret negotiations with the Universal/Ad Populum and begins a coalition even if they agree to an additional $14 million offer. From the complaint:
However, the debtor was never bound by bidding procedure orders and instead used the auction to direct the sale of its assets to stalking horse buyers. To achieve the illegal goal, the debtor hid the bidders at the auction (except for tracking horse buyers) and changed the auction rules after the auction to ensure tracking horse buyers become the party with the highest and best quotes. When the stalking horse buyer (at the start of the auction) worked secretly with another bidder, AD Populum LLC (“Ad Populum”), their efforts failed to increase the financial hardship of tracking horse buyers – undoubtedly, it must have been withdrawn from the bid, leaving behind the highest and best Bid. The debtor failed due to impacting the results and was therefore restricted from declaring successful bidders at the end of the auction. Indeed, even if the debtor declares a successful bidder, the debtor talks to the record universally and then eventually announces what is obvious to everyone, which is the winner of the auction.
The revelations in filing include the name of the third qualified bidder: Basic Fun, a toy company that can make Care Bears, Tonka, Lite Brite, K’Nex, K’Nex, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, Fisher Price, Littlest Pet Shop and other brands the same as the thriving boomers and Zennials. They submitted a $50 million bid.
Meanwhile, the league was “shocked” and found that Diamond allowed Universal and Ad Populum to submit comprehensive bids.
The auction was scheduled to take place on March 24, 2025, and it took the debtor eight hours to start the auction. Whole Company Assets (Lot d), Att, Basic Fun! and Universal/Ad Popoulm have three groups of bidders. After the auction began, but before the bid began, the debtor announced that shocked them, and they had arranged for the global and advertising crowd to bid as a group. Ad Populum is interested in buying only certain debtor assets and allowing two bidders to commit crimes against each other, thus increasing their financial position, thus exceeding the huge and basic fun! The debtor believes that this will further shift sales toward the goal of its preferred buyer, Global, without considering the estate or the interests of creditors.
At the end of the auction, determine the highest and best bid, bidding for $72,245,000 (including tracking horse protection). Angelo Exarhakos said on behalf of the Global/Advertising Population Group: “We’re out”, indicating that they won’t be the opposite of other bids. At this point, the debtor blocked the auction and met with Universal Pictures in private. Details of the discussion were never revealed. After the auction resumed, Raymond James continued to announce that bidders and universal/advertising population were reserve bidders, saying “[t[he Debtors in consultation with the consultation parties have reviewed the bids with respect to Lot D. And we’re pleased to announce, obviously, the winner is [AENT] Thank you very much for Lot D. Backup bidders are Group B of the general and advertising populations. Lot D is closed now. Therefore, there is no bid for Lot D. ”
Browsed hundreds of pages of the file, not revealing the exact contents of batch AD, but batch D (“Base All Assets”) does not include Diamond UK. In previous applications, including the APA (Asset Purchase Agreement) for the General and Advertising Population, it was obvious that the latter “is the highest or best bid for the debtor’s DCD business, CGA business, CGA business and Diamond Select Select Toy Business.”
The league throws the shadow of this bid in their complaint:
AD Populum has no financial transactions that can close AD Poplum APA. It has not reviewed financial statements and has assigned its rights under AD Popoulm APA to a third party, who is not a bidder at the auction and is not eligible to bid under BID program orders.
The third party is clearly Sparkle Pop LLC, a holding company of Ad Populum.
After all this, I left a lot of questions despite the fact that I needed to read Alliance APA more carefully.
•The alliance’s offer ended up being $85.37 million, exceeding the $69 million offered by the Global/Advertising Population Alliance. Why should diamonds choose lower bids? Maybe (just a guess) is this because the U/A bid is higher than the $61,613,309 cash offered by the league?
• As far as comics are concerned, is this the place where DCD (Diamond Comics publisher) is left? Although it was obvious that Universal Pictures wanted to enter the U.S. comic distribution market for months, DCD entered the advertising population segment of the bid. Universal received Diamond UK, maybe they could expand into the US business?
•If alliance bids prevail, what will British diamonds become, not the assets they acquire.
•I think you can say goodbye to free comics day?
•One Observation: Nevertheless, I suspect Bruce Ogilvie’s podcast isn’t the reason for the debtor’s Diamond & Alliance bid. BID has been supported by Diamond after a comprehensive bid for the general/ad population has been approved before the March 24 auction (which is annoyed to Alliance).
Today’s hearing (presumably what you read but no announced results) should answer some of these questions, but how many twists and turns can this story bring? As always, there will be more.
