In 2020, Vice began to face the onerous terms of that rich TPG deal, though it had managed by then to renegotiate the payments to favor stock over cash, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. By 2019, Disney had taken two write-downs, which totaled more than $500 million, on its Vice investments. In March 2018, Smith handed the CEO reins to the longtime A&E executive Nancy Dubuc, whose mission, in part, was to find a buyer before the start of guaranteed-dividend payouts to TPG in 2020. It was all downhill - slowly at first and then precipitously - from there. In 2017, just before the US pay-TV business began to fall off a cliff - and when a digital-media upstart could still compete with Facebook and Google - Vice scored a $450 million investment from the private-equity firm TPG, in a deal that valued the firm at an eye-popping $5.7 billion. He returned to his company's Brooklyn headquarters with the kind of headline numbers he was seeking. The talks fizzled, Disney backed off, and Smith set off for California to drum up other interest in Vice Media. Smith believed Vice had more room to grow, and some board members - including its investor James Murdoch - supported that view. A spokesperson for Disney declined to comment. After two investments from Disney worth a total of $400 million, talks in 2016 had turned into a prospective acquisition of the rapidly growing, edgy, and youth-oriented news and lifestyle venture.ĭisney ran the numbers and, though it didn't get as far as a formal offer, there were discussions pegging Vice's valuation at around $3.5 billion, according to multiple people familiar with those conversations. Seven years ago, Vice's cofounder Shane Smith was standing at the white-hot center of the media business and at an important financial crossroads. Vice's demise is "a story about companies who gorge on private equity," an ex-company insider said.He built a youth-focused media giant that's now flailing financially and scrambling to find a buyer.Disney discussed acquiring Vice in 2016 for around $3.5 billion, but cofounder Shane Smith wasn't sold.Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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