Last week‚ a company tied to Alex Jones dietary-supplement business filed a court challenge against The Onions acquisition of Infowars claiming auction manipulation. First American United Companies (which offered $3.5-million in cash) says their bid was unfairly passed over
The dispute comes after Jones lost multiple court cases about twelve years ago for spreading false-stories about Sandy Hook school tragedy. The courts ordered him to pay one-and-a-half billion dollars‚ which pushed him into bankruptcy around 2 years back: forcing the sale of his assets
Bankruptcy trustee Christopher Murray defended the process saying The Onions $7-million bid value included a smart deal with Sandy Hook families — they agreed to take future website earnings instead of up-front money. The challengers cash-heavy $3.5-million offer was deemed less attractive; however Judge Christopher Lopez noted some worries about auction clarity
The website briefly went offline after the sale announcement but quickly came back up (showing how complex the transition is). The Onions winning package includes:
- Website ownership
- Customer information
- Production equipment
- Social media accounts
- Product inventory
Some Sandy Hook families chose this path to block other right-wing content makers from getting the platform‚ while others — especially those in Texas with pending cases — didnt join the revenue-sharing plan. Despite the bankruptcy proceedings Jones still must pay most of the court-ordered damages
We will replace relentless barrage of disinformation with noticeably less hateful disinformation
The judge plans another hearing to look deeper into the sale details and transparency issues before making his final decision about the deals future