Alden Global Capital confirms settlement with Emmis

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RBR-TVBR broke the news Monday (12/5) that Emmis Communications and CEO Jeff Smulyan had settled all litigation with Alden Global Capital. Now that’s been confirmed in an SEC filing by Alden – which also told the SEC it no longer owns a single share of any Emmis stock of any type.


Alden was once the largest holder of Emmis Communications preferred stock and had a sizeable chunk of Class A common stock as well. It recently agreed to sell the preferred shares back to Emmis for $16.3 million and had already sold its common shares. So its filing with the SEC says Alden now holds zero Emmis shares.

Alden told the SEC that the agreement to sell the preferred shares back to Emmis was linked to a mutual release of legal claims. That includes ending all litigation by Alden, its related entities and Joe Siegelbaum (“and certain other persons”) on the Alden side and by Emmis, its related entities, Jeff Smulyan and entities affiliated with Smulyan on the Emmis side.

Smulyan’s JS Acquisition had sued Alden for walking away from their deal to buy out other shareholders and take Emmis private. More recently, Emmis had sued its former board member Siegelbaum, who had been nominated by the preferred shareholders, alleging that he had leaked confidential information to Alden.

Now the deal has been struck, the money and shares have changed hands and all of the lawsuits are being dismissed.