- The Onion's bid for Infowars came together with help from Sandy Hook families.
- The deal is now on hold after a bankruptcy judge expressed concerns about the auction.
- The Onion CEO Ben Collins has said he wants to transform InfoWars into an "alt-media" parody hub.
On the surface, The Onion's announcement that it had purchased Alex Jones's Infowars at auction on Thursday may have sounded like a bizarre joke.
But behind the scenes, the bid came together through strategic coordination — with the support of Sandy Hook families and a nonprofit that is backed by Michael Bloomberg.
Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, told Yahoo that he knew some of the lawyers representing Sandy Hook families from his former days as a disinformation reporter at NBC. He said they were key to the deal.
"The families decided they would effectively join our bid," Collins told Yahoo, "to try to get this over the finish line because by the end of the day, it was us or Alex Jones."
Still, the purchase apparently isn't set in stone, if Jones — who'd hoped one of his allies would purchase the site — has anything to say about it.
The designated backup bidder, First United American Companies — which operates Jones's online supplement shop — requested a hearing in Texas bankruptcy court to "address the apparent defects in the sale process, including changing the procedures, lack of transparency, and inaccurate disclosures to interested bidders," according to a court filing.
At a hearing Thursday, Judge Christopher Lopez of the Southern District of Texas's US Bankruptcy Court, expressed concern that offers weren't shared between rival bidders, Bloomberg News reported. Another hearing is set for next week.
"Nobody should feel comfortable with the results of the auction," Lopez said.
The Onion, a lawyer for First United, and lawyers for the trustee responsible for liquidating Jones's assets didn't respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
"The sale is currently underway, pending standard processes," Collins told Variety Friday in a statement.
In addition to support from the Sandy Hook families, The Onion is also working with Everytown for Gun Safety — an anti-gun-violence nonprofit founded in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. Everytown, which is backed by backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is supporting the reimagined Infowars in a multi-year advertising deal.
"They've long loved The Onion," Collins told Yahoo, nodding to a headline the outlet publishes verbatim every time there's a mass shooting.
And while many might consider The Onion, Everytown, and Infowars "strange bedfellows," Everytown President John Feinblatt told ABC News there's actually "perfect synergy" given how The Onion has advocated against gun violence over the years, citing its unique ability to "cut through misinformation" using humor.
Collins told ABC News that The Onion would own everything from Jones's broadcasting equipment to his supplement business.
On the content front, a new website would exist separately from The Onion. "We'll start building a whole new world there," Collins told ABC News, adding it would parody "alt-media people who've gone unmocked for too long."
Neither Everytown nor Bloomberg Philanthropies immediately responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Variety also reported that at the Thursday hearing, lawyers for Elon Musk's X appeared to reserve ownership of Jones's personal X account.
X's counsel did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The auction is underway because Jones was ordered to pay Sandy Hook families a collective $1.5 billion after losing a defamation suit for repeatedly referring to the deadly school shooting as a hoax.
Jones and Infowars' parent company Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and its assets are being liquidated.