Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Matt Walsh's New Documentary Explores The Very Ponderable Question of "What Is a Woman?," And Finds "The Experts" Are Extremely Confused And Also Very Touchy About Being Asked About The Question | Main | Quick Hits »
June 07, 2022

Vice Is Again Looking to Cut Costs and Hoping for a New Buyer to Keep It Afloat

Via Clownfish TV, this report from The Information states that Vice will be mounting a new round of cost-cutting to try to stretch out its solvency while it searches for some sucker to buy it.

Vice does not make money. It will never make money. It just wants a series of Sugar Daddies willing to pump money into it forever to keep its overpaid, underperforming staff paid.

Vice Media is looking to cut costs and had brought in consultancy AlixPartners in recent weeks to help review its business as it explores a sale of its studio arm or the entire company, according to people familiar with the situation.

The New York-based media company is slowing down hiring and cutting other costs to attain positive cash flow and generate $25 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization this year, the people said. Vice is projecting revenue to rise to over $700 million in 2022, up from around $680 million last year, the people said. Its studio arm, which is one of the assets it is potentially looking to offload, makes up nearly one-third of that revenue.

Vice's cost cutting comes as all media companies are seeing a decline in advertising revenue amidst market uncertainty. Last week, Snap warned that its second-quarter revenue and profits would fall short of its earlier projections due to faster deterioration in the economy than it had anticipated.

But Vice, which operates a news division, a digital business that includes Refinery 29, and the Virtue ad agency, has unique challenges in that it has been under pressure from investors, including private equity company TPG, to repay $1.1 billion in debt it owes.

Oh no, not another round of layoffs at Vice...!

The article says that they can only estimate what Vice is worth. They guess it's worth, maybe, "at least one billion." (And they owe $1.1 billion in debt?)

It was valued at $5.7 billion just a few years ago.

Clownfish TV points out that many of these media and tech company start-ups had a business model of getting a huge pile of venture capital money, running the company for a few years while pretending it might turn a profit in the near future, and then finding a sucker they could then sell the company too for a lot of money, leaving them holding the bag on a company that would probably always lose money.

And these companies have relied on very low interest rates, and very cheap money, to remain afloat. Because they never, ever made money, and have run at a loss every single quarte, they have required periodic infusions of fresh "investments" from venture capital firms or other investors to keep them afloat.

And investors have been willing to play along, because until now, money have been very, very cheap. You can always get another loan to refresh your old one.

But now the era of cheap money is ending. Interest rates are going to keep on climbing, and loans are going to become more and more expensive.

Few are going to want to keep shoveling stacks of cash into the Money Furnaces of failing tech/media companies that were stupid ideas even in 2017 and are just preposterous now.

This Business Insider article is written in such a strident way that it loses credibility, but I do think it's probably a lot more right than wrong: All of the tech/media companies that have been kept alive only by a steady IV drip of fresh infusions of "investment" money -- really, new subsidies -- are about to have the plug pulled on them and be allowed to die.

'Lots of companies are going to get vaporized': The tech titans of Silicon Valley are in serious trouble -- and they're going to take the rest of the stock market down with them


...

[N]ow these vaunted tech geniuses are watching their empires crumble in the face of changing economic winds. Interest rates are rising from historic lows, and it's become clear that a wide array of tech companies -- from the most lionized to the most ridiculous -- cannot survive without easy money. Silicon Valley's inability to weather this inevitable shift is both a disappointment and a wonder. We've seen a tech bubble expand and pop before, bridging the end of the 1990s and the start of the 2000s, but what makes this time so different is the sheer scale of the destruction this will leave in its wake.

Jim Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates, made a name for his short-selling firm by calling out the excesses of the last tech boom, earning him a forever spot in the Wall Street pantheon of "people who saw it coming." This time around, he told me, the companies that could crumble are even bigger -- and they make up a bigger slice of the economy.

"Our typical short in early 2000 was a $2 billion to $3 billion company that was going away. This go-round it's a $20 billion to $30 billion company. That's why we call this the dot-com era on steroids," Chanos said. "I think lots of companies are going to get vaporized. A lot of them are going to go to zero."

For the past couple decades, Silicon Valley's luminaries told us that money was just fuel for their innovation. What the market is showing us now -- as once seemingly stable businesses degenerate -- is that money was also the engine, the captain, and the destination. In the next few years, many of the hottest tech innovations of this market cycle will simply disappear. Consider this an extinction-level event.

Among the pieces of evidence the article amasses for a coming correction: The major tech investment firm SoftBank has announced that it will cut its investments in startups in half.

The biggest Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator is advising its portfolio founders to "prepare for the worst:"

Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley kingmaker, is advising its portfolio founders to "plan for the worst" as startups across the globe scramble to navigate a sharp reversal after a 13-year bull run.

And a many other tech investors are preparing "Black Swan" memos also warning of possible wipeouts in the sector.

Below, Ryan Long plays the role of a Vice reporter begging and pleading for a White Knight investor to come along and pour more money into the failing Vice. He tries to sell investors on this proposition by bragging about all the great articles Vice has published -- real articles, note. Ryan Long isn't making these up. These are real Vice articles.

He starts off with a specialty of Vice -- articles insisting that straight men routinely engage in all sorts of gay behaviors and gay sex.


Semi-Related: Target warns that its profit will drop, as it is forced to cancel orders and offer discounts to clear out current unwanted inventory.

Just weeks after reporting weaker than expected profits, retailer aims to discount or cancel orders for products like patio furniture and small appliances, restock with in-demand goods

Target Corp. warned its profit would drop because it needs to cancel orders with vendors and offer discounts to clear out unwanted goods, the latest sign of the sudden mismatch between supply and demand inside America's stores.

Big retailers benefited over the past two years from the pandemic rush to buy patio furniture, laptops and home decor, as shoppers were buoyed by savings and government stimulus checks. Now many of those same stores are grappling with a swift reversal of buying behavior, with consumers spending less on goods in favor of services and necessities such as food and fuel.

I'm sure their Chest Binder for Kids (TM) sales are going through the roof, though.

digg this
posted by Ace at 04:25 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Program administratos.: "132 I wonder how many non illegals are signing up ..."

N: "Reminds me of Jim Carrey in the toilet when that s ..."

Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead!: "It's only barely plausible. It is much more plausi ..."

N: "Some of the gangs actually have cult-religious stu ..."

Dr. Claw: "173 'If this is true and proved, then Putin wins ..."

Helena Handbasket: ">>> 181 >>> I am not defending Ukraine, but the un ..."

Vigo, Scourge of Carpathia, Sorrow of Moldavia: "What was will be! What is will be no more! ..."

Hairyback Guy: "not necessarily in that order, it might also be si ..."

N: "I'd bet the people implementing the program are th ..."

Helena Handbasket: ">>> 147 Visegrád 24 @visegrad24 Mar 26 Inter ..."

G'rump928(c): "[i]These migrants ARE Americans now - they're not ..."

Braenyard: ">>> I am not defending Ukraine, but the uncontroll ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64