Probably shouldn't expect Austin and the gang to be on Disney XD again anytime soon.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/8/18537617/disney-vice-write-off-400-million
Here are the Disney/Vice particulars: Disney told investors Wednesday that it had wiped out $353 million of the money it had previously put into Vice. That followed an announcement last fall that
Disney had knocked down the value of its Vice investment by $157 million.
Disney declined to comment. But one bit of language in Disney's
quarterly filing Wednesday is telling: Disney describes the $353 million "impairment charge" it took on Vice as a "write-off" — which in accounting-speak means there's nothing left to get rid of after this. It's all gone.
Per
Investopedia: "A write-down becomes a
write-off if the entire balance of the asset is eliminated and removed from the books altogether."
If you've been doing the math, you'll note that $353 million plus $157 million is $510 million — well more than the $400 million Disney invested directly in Vice.
Since Disney won't comment, we will assume that the additional sum includes Vice investments that Disney owned through A&E, the TV programmer that Disney owns along with Hearst, which also backed Vice; as well as $70 million that 21 Century Fox sunk into Vice. That ownership stake transferred to Disney earlier this year when Disney bought a good chunk of the Fox empire.
One last caveat: You can't say that Disney is saying Vice Media isn't worth anything at all — just that Disney thinks its investment isn't going to be worth anything. That's a distinction with a difference for some Vice investors, who have deals that allow them to get their money from the company, in the case of a sale, before other investors.