Avaya Holdings Corp. is nearing a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to restructure its balance sheet as it looks to turn around its business and move past problems surrounding the company’s accounting, people familiar with the matter said.
Avaya disclosed earlier this week it has reviewed various restructuring proposals from competing creditor groups. One plan, supported by a senior lender group including Apollo Global Management , would significantly reduce Avaya’s debt load through chapter 11, wipe out shareholders and, pending the completion of an internal investigation into controls over financial reporting, provide directors and executives with releases from potential litigation.
Great news for anybody who wants to see some sun-damaged touch screens get livened up by a little good, hearty cheer: Redbox just got itself bought by Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment Inc., the company behind eight million books of inspirational sub-Reader’s Digest horseshit, and also, for some reason, Crackle—your number 1 streaming home for Joe Dirt 2.
Redbox is, of course, the company that operates all those kiosks that tend to pop up like crimson plastic mushrooms around your various neighborhood supermarkets or drugstores, catering to the societal deviants who still prefer to acquire media through plastic discs instead of the Information Superhighway, despite living in a world where Netflix and its streaming ilk are hunched over, like beasts, still guzzling down the neck-meat of the classic video store. The company has reportedly been struggling in recent years, presumably because, well, its whole business model seems pegged to a transitional phase in media consumption. (Which is to say that there’s an obvious benefit to owning physical media, for sure, but very little benefit, outside being very cheap, to renting it, as opposed to simply going digital.)
Anyway: The company—which went public last year after a period of ownership by Apollo Global Management, the big spooky conglomerate that also owns AMC Theaters, Yahoo!, Sirius Satellite Radio, and a whole bunch more stuff—is being acquired by Chicken Soup Entertainment, for a reported $375 million. Which sounds like a lot, until you find out that $50 million of that is Chicken Soup stock (the financial apparatus, not the consommé base), and that the rest was $325 million in Redbox debt the company was willing to take on.
Chicken Soup has been on an acquisition streak in recent years, most notably picking Crackle up off of Sony, and buying film distribution company Screen Media. They also make pet food! It’s not clear why, exactly, they want a physical media rental company that’s been losing both revenues and employees in recent months, but hey: Is that really anything the power of positive thinking and folksy anecdotes can’t fix? (Yes, it absolutely is.)
TPG, one of the last of the original private-equity giants to remain a closely held partnership, is evaluating a public listing, people familiar with the matter said.
The firm is considering a straightforward initial public offering and a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, with the former being the most likely route, the people said. Such a deal could value the California-and-Texas firm at about $10 billion, some of the people said.
The process is still in its early stages and TPG may not opt to proceed with any deal.
TPG, with nearly $100 billion in assets under management, has flirted with an IPO multiple times, only to end up balking while rivals forged ahead. Blackstone Group Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc., KKR & Co. and Carlyle Group Inc. went public years ago, transforming businesses that have enjoyed rapid growth as the industry is flooded with assets.
“As we have consistently stated, we evaluate various strategic alternatives from time to time,” a TPG spokesman said in a statement. “No decisions have been made and we have nothing to announce at this time.”
Leon Black plans to step down as chief executive of Apollo Global Management Inc. after an independent review revealed larger-than-expected payments to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that it nevertheless deemed justified.
The monthslong review by Dechert LLP found no evidence that Mr. Black was involved in the criminal activities of the late Epstein, who was indicted in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls, according to a copy of the law firm’s report that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
In its report, Dechert found the fees that the billionaire had paid Epstein were for legitimate advice on trust- and estate-tax planning that proved to be of significant value to Mr. Black and his family. Mr. Black paid Epstein a total of $148 million, plus a $10 million donation to his charity—far more than was previously known.
Mr. Black wrote in a letter to Apollo’s fund investors that he would cede the role of CEO to co-founder Marc Rowan on or before his 70th birthday on July 31 while retaining the role of chairman. In the letter, a copy of which was viewed by the Journal, Mr. Black detailed other governance changes he is recommending to the board, including the appointment of more independent directors and the elimination of Apollo’s dual-class share structure.
Mr. Black also pledged to donate $200 million of his family’s money to women’s initiatives.