Vice Media is owned by a group of its former lenders led by Fortress Investment Group, together with Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital. The three firms took control in 2023 after buying Vice’s assets out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, wiping out the company’s earlier investors in the process. The legal entity holding the assets is Vice Group Holding Inc.
The Three Firms That Own Vice Today
Fortress Investment Group leads the ownership group. Fortress is a global investment firm managing roughly $55 billion in assets, with a focus on acquiring distressed companies and restructuring them for profitability.1Fortress Investment Group. Fortress Investment Group
Soros Fund Management, the investment vehicle for billionaire George Soros, holds a stake alongside Fortress. Monroe Capital, a firm that focuses on private credit for mid-market businesses, rounds out the consortium.2Stretto. Venus Liquidation Inc.
All three were lenders to Vice before they became owners. When the company couldn’t repay what it owed, they converted that debt into equity through a court-supervised sale. The shift from media entrepreneurs to professional investment managers has reshaped the company’s priorities toward cost cuts, sustainable revenue, and value from the remaining brand portfolio, which includes Vice Studios Group, Vice TV, and the creative agency Virtue.
How the Lenders Ended Up as Owners
At its peak in 2017, Vice was valued at $5.7 billion. The company relied heavily on outside capital to fund expansion into television, international bureaus, and branded content, and digital advertising revenue never stabilized the way investors hoped. A highly leveraged capital structure made the math worse over time. On May 15, 2023, Vice filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.2Stretto. Venus Liquidation Inc.
The ownership transfer happened through a Section 363 sale, a provision of the federal Bankruptcy Code that lets a bankrupt company sell its assets outside the normal course of business with court approval.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 363 – Use, Sale, or Lease of Property The Fortress-led consortium submitted a stalking horse bid that set the floor price for the auction.
The consortium didn’t pay cash. It used credit bidding, a technique that lets secured creditors offset the debt owed to them against the purchase price of the debtor’s assets under Section 363(k).3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 363 – Use, Sale, or Lease of Property No other bidder emerged to top the offer, and the bankruptcy court approved the sale. The consortium also provided $60 million in debtor-in-possession financing to keep Vice running during the proceedings, though roughly $50 million of that rolled up debt the lenders were already owed.
Who Lost Their Stakes
Every previous shareholder was wiped out. That is how the Chapter 11 priority system works: secured creditors get paid first, then unsecured creditors, and equity holders stand last. When the total value of a company’s assets doesn’t cover even the secured debt, shareholders get nothing. Because no bidder offered more than the consortium’s credit bid, Vice’s value was effectively confirmed as less than its outstanding secured obligations.
The Walt Disney Company had invested $400 million in Vice in 2015 for roughly a 10% stake. That entire investment was eliminated. TPG Capital, which put $450 million into Vice in 2017 at the peak valuation, met the same fate. 21st Century Fox’s 5% stake was also wiped out.
Co-founder Shane Smith, long the face of the company, had sold roughly $100 million in stock in 2014 when Vice’s trajectory still looked promising, but any remaining equity he held was eliminated by the bankruptcy.
What Ownership Has Meant in Practice
The Vice that exists under the new owners bears little resemblance to the media empire of a few years ago. In early 2024, the company stopped publishing on its flagship website, Vice.com, and cut several hundred positions. The digital news operation that made Vice famous was effectively shut down, and the company signaled a shift toward being a production player rather than a digital publisher.
Vice TV, available in roughly 40 million U.S. homes, has pivoted toward sports-and-culture programming built on rights to niche properties rather than expensive major league packages. The network aired over 500 hours of sports content in 2025 and has built a combined 9.7 million followers across its digital channels.
Shane Smith has returned to relaunch Vice News as a smaller, social-media-first operation focused on podcasts and short-form video, running on a fraction of the old budget and relying on freelance talent and brand partnerships instead of a large in-house newsroom.
Who Runs Vice Day to Day
Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala serve as co-CEOs of Vice Media Group. Both are longtime company executives who were elevated after former CEO Nancy Dubuc departed in early 2023, months before the bankruptcy filing. Dixon led the company through the asset sale and the restructuring that followed.
The co-CEOs report to a board composed of representatives appointed by Fortress, Soros Fund Management, and Monroe Capital. In practice, the investment firms set strategic direction, including which business units to keep, which to wind down, and how aggressively to cut costs. The executive team’s job is to execute that strategy while finding a path to the sustainable profitability that eluded Vice during its high-flying earlier years.