Tuesday’s scheduled auction of Young Broadcasting’s assets, primarily its TV stations in 10 markets, did not take place. A filing with the federal bankruptcy court states that the debtors “determined that the auction is not necessary.”
At last report, the bankruptcy court in Manhattan was still scheduled to hold a hearing today (7/15) to deal with the sale and other pending issues. An agenda for today’s hearing filed late Tuesday by bankruptcy council for Young says “Debtors will update the Court on the Status of the Debtors’ Sale and Plan Processes.”
So, why was the auction called off? One possible explanation is that there was only one bid submitted by the July 10th deadline, so there was no reason to compare bids in an auction situation.
Silver Point Capital is known to hold a large chunk of Young’s debt and was expected to bid for the station group. It already owns Granite Broadcasting, not to mention parts of what used to be Equity Media, so acquiring the Young stations would give it a duopoly in San Francisco at a relatively cheap price.
We wait to see what the court does today.
