Business
Former NBA player Ulysses Bridgeman to buy bankrupt Ebony for $14 million
The $14 million offer from Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman was sole serious bid for publisher of Black magazines
Former NBA player Ulysses “Junior” Bridgeman has emerged as the likely next owner of legacy Black media company Ebony, after bidding US$14 million for it in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Bridgeman Sports and Media, a company owned by the retired Milwaukee Bucks forward, was announced as the successful bidder for Ebony Media’s assets by a Houston bankruptcy court on Friday December 18.
The sale order is expected to be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge today, according to Leonard Simon, a Houston attorney representing Ebony Media.
Ebony, the legacy Black monthly lifestyle magazine, was forced in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in July by its creditors after defaulting on more than US$10 million in loans. The bankruptcy was converted to a voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization in September.
Bridgeman, who spent most of his 12-year basketball career with the Milwaukee Bucks, became a successful fast food restaurant franchisee after retiring from the NBA in 1987. He sold his restaurant interests and in 2017 launched Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Company, a Kansas-based facility whose distribution territory includes Kansas, Missouri, and Southern Illinois.
In 2019, Bridgeman dropped efforts to buy Sports Illustrated from Meredith, which subsequently sold the magazine to Authentic Brands Group for US$110 million.
Chicago-based Johnson Publishing launched Ebony in 1945, an influential monthly lifestyle magazine that documented the African American experience for more than 7 decades.
In 2016 Johnson Publishing sold Ebony and its sister publication, Jet, to Texas-based private equity firm CVG Group in a deal that included about US$4.3 million in cash.
Struggling during the digital age, the magazine’s woes continued under CVG Group, which ceased print publication of Ebony last year and faced lawsuits brought by freelancers and former employees over unpaid compensation. In 2018, Ebony agreed to pay dozens of freelancers nearly US$80,000 to settle their lawsuit.
The Ebony purchase originally was financed by Parkview Capital Credit, which issued CVG about US$10 million in loans. When Ebony defaulted on those loans, Parkview filed in July to force the publisher into an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy, claiming it was owed US$11.9 million.
CVG Group owns 80 percent of Ebony Media, while Linda Johnson Rice, daughter of Ebony founder John Johnson, retains a 20 percent interest the company.
During its heyday, Ebony’s reporters and photographers followed Martin Luther King Jr. from the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott to the 1965 Selma march, culminating in the assassinated civil rights leader’s 1968 funeral.
Last year, as the Black Lives Matter movement resonated nationwide, Ebony’s website has been mostly dormant as the company seeks to emerge from bankruptcy.
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