BroadSign Emerges From Chapter 11 (Details)
May 31, 2012 by Dave Haynes
As was pretty much expected, BroadSign is now owned by Burr Smith, the guy who has been the primary investor in the company since 2009 and chairman of the company board.
Formally, the assets of BroadSign International, Inc. have been acquired by JedFam Group, LLC (Smith). This comes three months after the company filed for Chapter 11 protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court, and means the company will now emerge from bankruptcy.
Brian Dusho, also as expected, stays on as CEO.
Here’s the details on the deal, via Bloomberg:
Broadsign held an auction on May 8th to learn whether anyone would top the offer for the business made by JedFam Group llc. Bids had to be in by May 4 and a hearing was held to approve a sale by May 10th.
Broadsign filed for Chapter 11 reorganization on March 4, already having agreement for JEDFam to buy the business in exchange for $5.5 million in secured debt plus the amount needed to cure defaults on contracts going along with the sale.
Boise, Idaho-based Broadsign owes a total of $5.7 million to JEDFam on two first-lien obligations. The lender agreed to provide another $322,000 to finance the Chapter 11 case. JEDFam also owns 25 percent of the Broadsign stock.
Other secured lenders are owed an aggregate of $6.8 million on obligations junior to the JEDFam debt, a court filing says.
The Delaware court filing is here, and shows some sort of management company is the biggest creditor.
“Today marks the start of a new chapter for BroadSign,” says Dusho. “Thanks to widespread support from our lenders, customers, partners and friends, our operations have remained robust through this process.”
Dusho also says despite the turmoil that company has experienced unprecedented growth in recent months. Much of that has been in Europe. “I am especially grateful to our employees around the world whose continued hard work and focus have been instrumental in enabling us to reach this achievement and who will be important contributors to our future success.”
Good to see the company climb, at least somewhat, out of that mess. As has been noted elsewhere, the core guys at BroadSign have done a hell of a job keeping things together through what has been a few years (not just the Chapter 11 episode) of open questions about the company’s ability to keep the lights on as the staff and office shrank and the fortunes of Digital OOH media companies (BroadSign’s key vertical) have wobbled.
There is little learn online about Smith, other than he is a lawyer by trade but mostly an investor. It’s also very clear from campaign finance filings he’s voting Romney this fall.
[…] seems to be well on the way from clawing itself back from the Chapter 11 brink a year ago, releasing a very nice Android solution at DSE and announcing a very large account win today […]