this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
352 points (97.3% liked)

Technology

60055 readers
2914 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

“It seemed doomed almost from the moment they decided to go to a sealed bid,” Judge Lopez said. “Nobody knows what anybody else is bidding,” he added.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Apparently they also did not allow follow-up bids/outbidding others. It’s called a bankruptcy auction for a reason.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 week ago

And there's a trustee for a reason. The debtors decided that the value of keeping Alex Jones away from InfoWars had its own value and were willing to accept a lower bid. There's no fiduciary duty to maximize the proceeds from the sale, and Alex buying back his own assets during a bankruptcy auction is actual fraud.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A first price sealed bid auction is a perfectly common type of auction.
It's functionally equivalent to an auction where you know the value of a thing (like we do a business being liquidated because the owner is in extremely deep unrelated legal debt), and the auctioneer starts by asking for the face value and then progressively lowers the ask until the first person accepts the price.
Instead of trying to get the lowest price possible, people are incentivised to start with their best offer for what they actually think the thing is valued. Allowing follow-up bids encourages people to low-ball and work their way up, which can reduce the price the seller gets for the item.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sealed-bid-auction.asp

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Common in bankruptcy as well?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No idea, and not entirely sure why it matters. If your goal is to sell an asset and maximize proceeds, it's a known and unsurprising strategy, particularly since it gives higher returns when there are few bidders.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 week ago

I think it has quite a chance of mattering. There's two choices here: the judge is incomptetent/compromised, or there's a reason this makes sense within the bankruptcy context. I want to explore the latter first before I make any judgements.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The underlying reason for the bankruptcy is bigger than dollars. Avoiding selling infowars to some other conservative shitheads to continue the harassment of Sandy Hook victims is far more important than dollar signs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

This was not a typical bankruptcy auction, and part of the trustee’s role was to ensure an outcome that was acceptable to those injured by Jones, eg the Sandy Hook families.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickrey_auction

There are numerous formats of auction. I don't think a Vickrey auction is what they did, but it is an example of a sealed auction format that is well supported as legitimately and efficiently maximizing value for the seller.