The bankruptcy court in the Diamond Comic Distributors case has approved a proposed settlement between a group of consignment publishers and the bankrupt estate (see “Settlement with Some Consignment Vendors Proposed“), after Sparkle Pop, LLC withdrew its objection (see “Sparkle Pop Objects“).
The court approved a settlement involving the other group of consignment publishers, the bankrupt estate, and Sparkle Pop earlier this week (“Court Approves Consignment Settlement“). Unlike this second settlement, that agreement had specified the fees that Sparkle Pop would be paid for rent and services related to the consignment inventory. Presumably the withdrawal of Sparkle Pop’s objection to the settlement approved Thursday means that some agreement has been reached between the publishers and Sparkle Pop over those fees.
The vendors involved include the members of the Ad Hoc Consignors Committee, plus BOOM! Entertainment, which has litigated alongside the committee, and Dynamite Entertainment, which was a member of the Consignment Group, a second group of consignment vendors. The Ad Hoc Consigners include Ablaze, LLC, American Mythology Productions, LLC, Avatar Press, Inc., Battle Quest Comics, Action Lab Comics, Drawn & Quarterly Books Inc., Fantagraphics Books, Inc., Green Ronin Publishing, LLC, Hermes Press, Living the Line, LLC, Paizo, Inc., UDON Entertainment, Inc., and Zenescope Entertainment, Inc.
This group of publishers includes two game companies, including Paizo Publishing, which has had a rough go since the bankruptcy (see “Paizo Reports Almost $2 Million Loss“).
As we noted in our article on the first settlement approved, it does not make these publishers whole. Some of the inventory has been devalued by age; the publishers are giving up cash collected from the sale of their inventory by Sparkle Pop; they’ve endured significant legal costs; and the capital they invested in that inventory has been tied up for almost two years.
Regardless, the fate of nearly $50 million of inventory at cost has now been settled and product can begin moving to the publishers and to the stores that need it. Now it”s up to Sparkle Pop to make that inventory available expeditiously.
Source: ICv2
