There were seven qualified bidders at the auction, bidding on a variety of assets and asset combinations. One new bidder was revealed: toy company Basic Fun!, which bid $50 million as its opening bid for substantially all of the company's assets.
The bids from Universal Distribution and Ad Populum, which eventually became the back-up bid and are now being submitted to the court as the winner of the auction, originally came in for separate assets and were combined into a single bid encompassing more assets than either had bid for individually at the auction.
Alliance Entertainment went after this joint bid in its lawsuit, arguing that the joint bid structure, in which one bidder might close and the other might not, is riskier than the single bid from Alliance. Alliance also argued that WizKids and NECA parent Ad Populum "…does not have the financial wherewithal to close the transaction…," and that as a result, "…it has assigned its rights under the Ad Populum APA [Asset Purchase Agreement] to a third party, who was not a bidder at the Auction and is not qualified to bid under the Bid Procedures Order."
Alliance Entertainment’s initial bid was $51,559,450, which required a deposit of $3.6 million. At the end of the auction, Alliance's final bid was $72,245,000, which included stalking horse protections, at which point Universal Distribution CEO Angelo Exarhakos said, "we're out" indicating that the Universal/Ad Populum bidders would not counter, according to the Alliance Entertainment lawsuit. Diamond then met privately with Universal before declaring Alliance Entertainment's the winning bid.
A hearing was held Monday, April 7, on Diamond's motion to sell the company to Universal and Ad Populum; news from that hearing should be revealed soon.
